The Girl With the Silver Eyes
by L. D. Nicolescu
Summary: Overwhelm with guilt Kushina decides that the best way to atone for her mistakes is to find a way to control the tailed beast she carries insides. Unfortunately she gets sucked into the political war that defined the third shinobi world war. Now she must make a decision: to save her love and lose her village or save her village and lose her love.
1. The Day the Leaves Turned Red

**The Day the Leaves Turned Red**

* * *

_"Have you ever waited for death? It's horrible isn't it? Not knowing if he will be late." - Anonymus._

* * *

Getting back home was a lot harder than she expected, and it was mostly because she had never been good at orienting herself without some kind of tool to help her determine where she was. She cursed under her breath at not paying attention at her academy classes. This could have been a great time to get that training into action, but like many things in her life, she had been too damn impatient to actually understand the long term benefits learning brought; like say pay attention when the Chunin explained which way was east. Stopping on a branch, Kushina looked behind her. She could count on one hand the number of times she had traveled back to Whirlpool since moving to Konoha. Three to be exact. The first two times she had been guided by ANBU shinobi that had taken her to and brought her back from her native island. The third time, her older brother, Naoto, had been in charge of the trip that had taken place by boat, so she couldn't base her actual location on any of those past experiences, which meant that she was most likely lost.

'Great,' she thought, looking around for something that would tell her where in the Fire Country was she exactly. She only saw the same kind of trees she had been seeing since leaving the village. 'This is just great. Now what?' She couldn't take the main road, since she had no idea where she was and how to get there. Looking at the sun was useless too, judging by the lack of shadow underneath her she could tell that there was no sun in the sky today. The rainy season this year had been longer than in previous years and she was too impatient to wait for night and try and guide herself with the stars. That only left two options: either resume her journey and hope to reach the ocean in two days or turn back and take the road that connected Konoha to the other roads, which meant risking crossing paths with that man. Was she desperate enough? She asked herself. A horrible pain traveled down her spine, forcing images onto her mind. Being chained to the wall. Being hit numerous times by multiple shinobi. Being starved to the point of not even having enough energy protest on the abuse. No. She couldn't go back to that. There was no telling what would happen to her if they captured her again.

Deciding that the best way to get to safety was to push forward, Kushina resumed her tree jumping. She would eventually cross paths with someone else, she would have the chance to ask them then. She was forced to stop dead on her tracks when an unusual sound of footsteps reached her ears. She barely dodged a kunai that was thrown her way, forcing her to press herself against the tree steam to prevent being attacked again. She had been a shinobi long enough to know that other shinobi didn't attack one another unless they were after something. But what? She wondered. She hadn't taken anything of importance that would-

"There she is!" she heard someone say behind her. Crouching, Kushina tried in vain to look through the thik leaves that blocked her vision. No wonder Konoha meant the village hidden in the leaves, she couldn't even make out the shape of her attackers.

"Contain her!" anther shouted. "We mustn't harm her. We must bring her back with us alive!"

"But she's a jinchuuriki!" a third voice countered, making her heart race. How in the hell did she know that? There were only five people who knew that, and one of them was already dead. "She's far more dangerous than we think."

They were from Konoha, Kushina concluded, jumping on a higher branch and accelerating her pace. That much was for sure. Danzo was the only one risky enough to send people after her, and stupid enough to tell them a village secret. 'If I'm not wrong, they must be Root ANBU,' she thought, jumping illogically from branch to branch to try and confuse them. 'Danzo probably found out about me escaping and is trying to get me back before anyone else from Konoha comes to look for me. That bastard, I need to shake this guys before they catch me.' Yet doing so proved harder than she thought.

Kushina had never fought along ANBU shinobi before. They ran in different circles. ANBU were under the direct guide of the Hokage, or in this case, Danzo, so there was no reason for her to know about them other than their reputation, which was notable. There was no telling what would happen if she were to confront them in a fight. And three against one…she was no coward and she had great respect for herself and her abilities, yet she couldn't be sure who would win if they confronted each other in a fight. Deciding that best way to escape was to confuse them, Kushina made three other clones that quickly scattered. She jumped from the branches onto the floor and rolled around a tree, choosing to head back in the direction she had come from. If they followed her clones she would have time enough to choose another route and find a better place to hide. She had no rush to get back to Whirlpool, yet she knew that Danzo was not a patient man. He would be expecting answers in less than a few hours.

Pressing her body against a tree, Kushina watched as no less than five Root ANBU shinobi jumped passed her in the direction one of her clones had taken. A whole squad after her? Either Danzo was really desperate or he really thought she was that dangerous. Either way she had no interest to find out. Glancing one last time at the direction the Root had taken, Kushina turned on her heals prepared to jump on the highest tree branch and make her escape when four Root ANBU shinobi closed in on her.

"Uzumaki Kushina." A girl with a fox mask spoke, jumping from the branch onto the floor where she was standing, no less than ten feet away from her. "Under Danzo-sama's orders, you will be returning to Konoha with us.""

Her first instinctive was to laugh at such idiocy. Did this girl really think that just naming Danzo would make her cower in defeat? Really, what exactly were they teaching this kids at that Root Academy? 'How to Make Your Enemy Surrender by Naming Your Master theory'? Please.

"Please kid," Kushina scoffed, waving her hand in dismissal. "Don't make me laugh."

"Don't make us use force." A cat's masked kid said, showing kunai in his hands. "You are out numbered here."

"And you are out trained here." Kushina waved her hand again, not even bothering to glance his way. "You are one hundred years too early to fight me. Leave now. Don't make me shame you."

The original girl with the fox mask took a step forward. She was obviously the leader here. "Don't make us kill you. We have explicit orders to take you back unharmed, but if you resist we will use force on you."

A kunai flew past her ear, making a sharp hissing sound. Cat's mask had obviously thrown that. It would have been a good tactic if she hadn't been stabbed by kunai multiple times. This kind of things didn't even make her flinch. If they wanted to scare her, they would have to do a lot better than that.

"Let me guess," Kushina asked, taking her eyes off fox mask and centering it on cat's mask. As she did she realized more shinobi had arrived, making her original assumption of just a squad wrong. The number had grown from four to thirteen and more seem to be arriving. She was seriously outnumbered here. This was the time to start thinking of a plan of escape without harming this kids. She had no intention of tainting her hands with blood. "Was that meant for my head?"

"That was meant as a warning," cat's mask growled under his breath. His stance had tensed and so had the others. They were prepared to fight. "Come now and no harm will come to you."

The laugh came out involuntarily. It wasn't that she found his words funny exactly, but the irony of them made the reaction inevitable. No harm will come to her? Aside from being experimented on and then tossed aside when the desired conclusion were drawn? Which would most likely come at the cost of her own life and sanity? This kids were either really stupid or really loyal to Danzo's cause.

Her laugh triggered a mass of kunai coming her way. She had assumed it would come ever since she noticed the number of Root around her. Kunai was the easiest and most effective way to harm your oponent. Fifteen shinobi with five kunai each would make seventy five kunai thrown at her under five seconds and from all directions. They would aim them well enough that none would touch her body, since their explicit orders were to take her back unharmed, yet they were meant to immobilized her so they could seize an opportunity to grab her. It was good plan, she thought gathering wind chakra on her palm, too bad they were far less experienced than her in battle.

Spinning on her feet she caused the air around her to react to the gust of air that circled her arm, creating a shield around her. It was an old trick she had learned a few years ago, yet it had taken her out of deeper trouble than the one she was facing now. When the kunai hit the air they broke in half, falling to her feet with a clank. Wind had always been sharper than metal. Steading herself she waved her hand in front of her, creating a greater gust of wind that pushed the fox masked girl ten off her feet.

"Like I said," Kushina smirked cockily. "You are one hundred years too early to fight me."

Kushina heard a battle cry behind her and jumped forward to stand on her hands kicking the shinobi on the face in the process. It was low, she knew that, but what else where they expecting? They were shinobi and she was highly outnumbered, even though she was more experienced than they were. Another tried to stab her from behind but she deflected his blow easily by making a circle of wind around her, pushing three others away from her. A guy with a frog mask surrounded her with some chains that trapped her in place, but before he could even celebrate their victory she disappeared in a puff of smoke. He looked around him confused. He could have sworn that had been the original one, but before he could even form a coherent thought, Kushina slapped him across the back of the head, knocking him out cold. She looked around when he fell to the ground. Six shinobi on the ground more than ten still watching her from the trees. This was gonna take longer than she originally planned, and there was no telling how many Danzo had dispatched just to capture her. There could be the whole Root division. She couldn't fight over two hundred shinobi without others noticing. She was supposed to leave the Fire Country in secret. Letting people find out about her disappearance was the last thing she wanted at the moment. She had to end things quickly before more came, but how?

"Give it up," a female dog mask shinobi told her, not moving from her position. She was either seizing her up or waiting for the others to find them so they could take Kushina on all together. "We have your friend under custody. If you come with us, he will be liberated with a small warning. If you refuse to get back with us, he will no only be accused of helping a rogue ninja but wont have a chance for a trial and Danzo-sama will make sure that he is executed before dawn."

Was it true? Kushina wondered. They could just be trying to get her to agree to something that might not even be true. Satoru had still been in the hospital when she decided to flee the village. The last time she had seen him was when she had sneaked in to visit him and explain about the seal. He still had some wounds that needed strict medical attention, so she knew for a fact that he wouldn't get leave anytime soon. Besides, Satoru was part of the ANBU, he was under the Hokage's strict orders, even if Danzo did find a reason to arrest him, he would have to ask the Hokage first and then take it to the Uchiha police. Kushina had more than enough reasons to know that Aoi Uchiha, head of the Uchiha police and his father, wouldn't let a cunning old man get away with something as complicated as executing his own son. This guys had no leverage here.

Kushina chuckled in laughter. "Please if you want to threaten me, find a better reason for me to-" but she wasn't allowed to finish for a scroll was thrown at her feet. She hesitated slightly. She knew about hidden seal in scrolls, ones that would trigger on contact with the paper. They could be using that trick on her now to trap her. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction, so creating a shadow clone, she took a few steps back and never took her eyes of the dog masked ANBU as her clone took the scroll from the ground and opened it. A shriek was heard from her clone.

"What?" Kushina asked, taking the scroll from her clone as it disappeared.

Written on the scroll was an execution solicitation signed by both the Hokage and the Uchiha Police Capitan. The name under execution was Uchiha Satoru. Kushina couldn't believe her eyes. He had really done it. That fucking old man. She was going to kill him. She was going to kill him and it wasn't going to be pretty. Gripping the scroll on her hand, she felt a wave of rage pulsate through her. She had only felt this once before, but she still could remember the pleasure that it brought her. Rage and power. That's what it was. Throwing the scroll behind her with such force that it decapitated an ANBU shinobi standing right behind her, Kushina charged forward, grabbing the dog's mask girl by the neck.

"How did Danzo get those signatures?" Kushina asked in voice that wasn't quite her own. It was deeper, darker, thirstier. It was the kyuubi talking. "How did that old man get the Hokage to agree to kill someone?"

But before the girl could even make a sound of reply Kushina closed the hand wrapped around the girl's neck and snapped it with a sickening sound. She was dead before she hit the ground. They hadn't even taken their kunai out of their pocket when she jumped on to her next target, cutting their hands or their heads off their body was easy. She just needed to create massive gust of wind that looked more like a giant sword blade that would get the job done beautifully. There was no escape. Not as long as it was controlling her.

* * *

Blood dripped from the trees like it was pouring down rain. The scent of death was palpable in the air. Mutilated bodies scattered around her. She'd never felt more satisfied in her life. It was as if the act of killing brought peace within her. She looked at the concealed sun with fascination. With this much color its seemed as if it already was sunset. Closing her eyes for a moment, she spread her arms wide and let the smell of blood fill her nostrils. 'This is it,' she heard inside of her, 'this is who you've become.' Before she could even form a coherent thought on that, she heard a rustle of dirt next to her, forcing herself to snap back to reality. Were they back? Were there more? She saw as a boy with a bird mask fall to the floor hopelessly. She couldn't see his face, but the desperate movements of his body told her more than his facial expression ever could. She was on him long before he could get himself on his feet. Grabbing him by the hair, Kushina pulled him up and forced him to look at her, pinching his face with her hand. He was the only one that could appreciate the lack of humanity her eyes carried. There was nothing there, only darkness. Before he could even open his mouth to beg for mercy, Kushina spoke.

"Listen to me boy, you are going to tell that old man that there will be a day when I'll dine with his head on my wall. He better not touch him or what I've done here will seem like child's play. Can you remember that?" he barely nodded. "Good. Now go before I change my mind."

She let him go and he fell to the ground once again. At first he didn't know what to do, was he supposed to stay and wait for death? Fight and risk being killed like anyone else? Or risk it and turn his back on this monster? Kushina didn't seem interested in him any longer, so he took his chance and disappeared onto the tainted leaves. He just prayed he would live long enough to deliver the message.

* * *

Cleaning some sweat from her forehead, Kushina dug the wooden made shovel onto the ground once more and extracted the last piece of dirt she needed before placing it on the grave. She tossed the tool aside and used her hands to smooth the surface as best as she could. She graved a wild flower she had found a few meters away and placed it on the mountain of dirt before clapping her hands before her face and saying a small prayer. Dusting her hands she looked at the graves she had dug. Seventeen she had counted. Seventeen more people she had killed without really knowing it. Seventeen more lives she had been responsible for ending. Seventeen times she could have fought for control but she hadn't.

"This can't keep happening," she warned herself, clenching her fist at her sides. "I have to find a way."

Looking at the fresh graves with remorse one final time, she jumped on the branch behind her and didn't dare to look back.

* * *

_Not content with the way the story was heading, I decided to rewrite the entire thing from the beginning and so the previous chapters have been deleted for they are scenes that will happen down the road. I will try my best to update every chapter on the same date each month, but since the only predictable thing about life is its unpredictability I can't assure you anything. _

_L. D. Nicolescu._


	2. Sensou

**Sensou**

* * *

"_Only fools don't know the consequences to their actions." - Anonymus._

* * *

"Naota-kun! Naota-kun!" Satomi tried in vain, waving her hand from the shore in desperation, but nothing happened. Either the boat was too far away for her voice to be heard or Naota had completely fallen asleep, making her calls kind of useless. The later sounded like the more likely reason. When he went out fishing there were few things that could bring him back to reality; his father's commanding voice was one of them, but since he was busy dealing with the council at the moment, Yohei Uzumaki-sama had asked her to fetch his oldest child and the future leader of the Uzumaki family. Problem was, Satomi wasn't a trained ninja, making walking on water something she was still not used to doing.

She came from an influential family in the south islands that were to be part of Whirlpool. A deal had been made with the ninja village, and the Azore's archipelago islands were to be incorporated into the land of Eddies, meaning that they now had the privilege of trading with the great nations in the continent and be part of the protection program Whirlpool was now implementing to all of their allied islands. Now that a new Mizukage had been name, his first deal of order had been to "recuperate all the island that had been stolen from them by that damn Second Council". In reality, those islands had once been part of the previous Taisho dynasty, a powerful clan that had ruled much of the west and south ocean and had taken it upon itself to rule much part of the continent as well.

Unfortunately, the second son of the powerful clan leader, Yasu Taisho, hadn't been born with the innate talent in strategy as his elder brother had and thus was brutally defeated in the fight against the second Hoakge of Konoha, Tobirama Senju. The defeat of their leader caused a civil war in the Tategami ocean which in turn cause the independence of many islands among the once great empire. Unfortunately, the Second Mizukage, saw the opportunity to seize more land and conquered the southern Mitsukemija islands, that now formed part of Kirigakure. The Uzumaki clan, who had been a powerful ally of the Taisho clan, had taken it upon itself to follow their cousins steps and form their own ninja village, were they could live in peace but with a form of independence. Fuyuika Uzumaki, Naota's great grand father and leading commander of the Taisho army founded the hidden village of Whirlpool which grew larger when neighbor islands were absorbed into the Eddie nation as a means to diversify itself and grow more independent of the continent. Yet unlike Kirigakure, Whirlpool still recognized the independence of those countries that had been created with blood and death and allowed them to choose their own leaders which in turn would form part of the leading council of Whirlpool. Said council, consisted of the leaders of each archipelago of islands which ruled the nation of Eddies which consisted of more than two hundred islands in itself. By the time the third Mizukage had been elected, some of those nations that had been once part of Kirigakure fought for their independence, driving them into the land of Eddies which the second council accepted with grace promising not only a change in their ruling but also a better economic stability that the one they once had under Kirigakure brutal rule. This is turn anger the Mizukage and to prevent a war between the two Nations, Whirlpool's second council had decided to pay Kirigakure a large sum of money for the acquirement of said lands, something the second Water Daimyo had agreed upon, since said islands didn't pose any strategic nor economic gain for the land of water. Unfortunately, said lord had spent the money on pretty dresses and laborious parties and had bankrupted the water nation, leading to the downfall of a once powerful village.

The Azore archipelago had never been part of either the land of water nor the land of Eddies. They had acquired their independence when the Taisho empire had been destroyed and had served as an independent nation for more than one hundred years, something they valued deeply. Yet, the newly appointed Mizukage had set his eyes upon the free archipelago and had decided to gain said islands when when a gold mine had been discovered in one of their water caves. With the last war, the value of precious stones and metals had skyrocket, making Azore's archipelago and the land of Nagi a powerful price for the dying ninja nations. The invasion of the Azore's islands had taken place over a year ago, which had cause more than twenty percent of their population's death, something their leader had not taken easily. The call for help to their nearest neighbor and most powerful ally had been something painful to the once proud village, but it was either merging with Whirlpool or become another colony of Kirigakure.

The leader had died inexplicably before the papers had been singed, something the Azore people had taken as an attempt of Kirigakure to prevent the merge. Her father had taken the lead on the negotiations and had offered his daughter for marriage to the oldest son of the Uzumaki clan as a sing of friendship and loyalty. Satomi couldn't have been more than eleven years old when Seiji, her husband to be was killed, breaking the marriage and the promise of a merge with the ninja village. Fortunately the Uzumaki leader had another son, Naota, who was next in line to inherit the title of Kaicho. He was barely a year older than her yet they hadn't gotten along the first time they had officially met. The idea of an arranged marriage had been something so absurd to them at the time that they hadn't taken the deal seriously enough, until their fifteen birthday when Naota had been chastised for getting a girlfriend that wasn't Satomi.

"She's your future wife," his father had told him, trying to get his young son to understand the importance of the marriage to be. "You will treat her as such."

"But I don't even know her!" Naota had protested. "Why do I need to marry someone that had once been promised to Seiji?"

It had been meant as a off handed comment, yet Satomi had heard every word. Her future husband was a brute! And her father was going to force her to go through with this? There was just no way. Trying to get out of the so called marriage, Satomi and Naota had set aside their differences and worked together to convince their parents that such marriage would just result in a war between the villages in the future. But nothing would make their parents back down. It was far too important for either village to just go with a whim of two spoiled teenagers. Fortunately, their teaming up had only made them realize how similar they really were. It took them a while but Satomi and Naota finally realized that the nagging feeling they were always getting whenever the other was around was love and not annoyance as they had previously thought.

"It's gonna take us a while," Naota finally admitted to Satomi, "But I hope that someday we can have each others backs as something more than we are now."

That had been ten years ago and even thought the marriage had been something set up between their fathers, Satomi had grown to love and admire Naota in more ways than she realized. Tying herself to him had now become more than just trying to help her village.

"Naota!" Satomi cried once again, jumping up and down to see if maybe the movement would get her boyfriends attention, but it didn't work. He was laying down on the boat and had a straw hat over his face, something he only did whenever he was sleeping. There was only one other option.

Satomi sighed and took her sandals off. She would have to walk on wanter and knock the boat over to wake her boyfriend up, other wise there was no telling when he was going to get back from dreamland. Taking the few steps carefully, she locked her gaze on the water below her and walked slowly. The last thing she wanted was to fall on the water and ruin her hair, yet she had been asked to get Naota from his fishing trip for an emergency meeting at the council, time was something she didn't have.

"That idiot." Satomi murmured under her breath, getting closer to the boat. "Just wait until I get my hands on his pretty little neck!"

'_It's just a few more steps.'_ She thought, eying the boat with annoyance. '_I can't believe I'm scare of a few feet.' _But it wasn't the distance that she was scared of, it was the water.

Oddly enough, she had developed an aquaphobia when she was still a little girl. She couldn't quite place the reason for it and her father had never gotten into much detail about it, but for some reason she was scared of open deep water she couldn't just stand on. It was like she felt herself drowning every time she came across an open body of water, something Naota had found ironic seeing as they lived on islands. Satomi had too eventually seen the irony and had allowed him to teach her the walking on water jutsu, to help her conquer her fears. Yet it was not something she had done by herself, Naota had always been by her side. And it had been on a lake, where the water hardly ever moved, this was the open sea with waves and wind.

"Don't be an idiot Satomi!" she scowled at herself. "If Naota can do it, you can do it one hundred times better!"

Taking a quick glance to make sure she had not diverged from her original direction Satomi lost her footing, losing the balance she had been previously been careful to maintain. The feet went under and she felt herself fall slowly too, something she found quite ironic. Of all the ways she thought she would die, drowning was not in neither of the options. Taking one last big breath, Satomi closed her eyes waited for the water to cover her completely, for she didn't know how to swim.

'_This is it,'_ Satomi told herself, watching the sky with regret one last time. '_This is were I die.'_

"What are you doing?" a deep voice she knew by heart asked her, forcing her to open her eyes.

She was alive! She had survived! Naota had-

"You idiot!" she punched him on the chest when he scooped her up in his arms. "You incredible idiot!"

"What?" Naota asked, making his way up to the shore once more. "What did I do this time?"

"Why would you make me do something like that? You know how much I hate open bodies of water!"

"Hey I don't even know what you were doing out there." Naota defended himself watching with amusement as his girlfriend got the annoyance wrinkle as he liked to call it. "You could have just used one of the messaging birds."

"The birds?" Satomi asked, her stare going black. The birds! How could she have forgotten? She could have just written a message and pasted it on their legs. She didn't have to- "Urgh, I'm such an idiot!" she mumbled, burying her face on his neck.

Naota laughed and pressed a small kiss on her forehead. "I know." He said earning another punch. "But what was so important that you risked your life to tell me?"

Not once, in their nearly thirteen years they had known each other had he sheen her come close to a body of water without him to watch her over. For her to do something like that it had to mean that _something _must have happened. Maybe her father had changed his mind on their marriage and she was now engaged to be married to someone else, like say, Daichi, the future leader of the Fukayama clan. Naota had never really liked him or his clan. They were more vengeful than the council seemed to want to realize and didn't try to hide their sympathy of an all open war against Kirigakure for the islands of the south. The loss of Whirlpool shinobi lives didn't seem to matter for them, as long as their thirst for dead Kiri ninja was met, not to mention the ideas on the Kirigakure controled islands after Whirlpool takes them back. Did no one preach for peace anymore? He almost felt like he was the only that was trying to think of a way to get out of war with Kirigakure.

"Was Daichi elected the Fukayama's clan leader?" Naota asked his girlfriend, setting her back on her feet once they reach the sand. "What happened to Goro? I thought Hajime-sama was dead set on making him the next clan leader?"

Satomi's gaze darkened, she knew of the continuous battle inside the Fukayama clan for the seat at the council. Goro had been nominated as the next clan leader but rebuffed among the older members of the clan for his youth and Daichi had taking the opportunity of nominating himself for the tittle. He was well liked amongst the old members but disliked amongst the younger ones leading to a division of clan, something that was never good in any family, specially if the older ones were the ones that picked the leader after all.

"Last I heard Daichi had bribed a few members of the clan promising to relocate the capital to the Barlavento Islands."

The Barlavento Islands were a set of five islands near the border with Kirigakure and one of the southern most territories that Whirlpool owned. Relocating the capital there with everything that it involved, not only moving the whole council and population but also the military…it would send a clear message to the Mizukage and war would not be far from their future. His father had always said that the farther away their military stayed from the land of water, the easier it would be to come across a future peace negotiation with Kirigakure. Moving there would not only be stupid, but incredibly costly.

"Is Daichi stupid?" Naota couldn't help but ask himself out loud. It just seemed that every action the Fukayama made, it was done just to set everyone on their toes. "What would we gain on moving the capital there? We still own Konoha for the loan on the purchase of the southern islands. Getting ourselves into another war would bankrupt us! We don't have the power not the funds to fight against the Bloody Mist!"

It was true. Even though Whirlpool was considered one of the most powerful ninja villages in the world, they were still a small nation, with a ninja military of less than two thousand shinobi, something that Kirigakure tripled. They owed their international respect for their blood relation with the Senju clan of Konoha, Mito Uzumaki, the first and only shinobi to have ever tamed and sealed one of the tailed beast. Her marriage to Hashirama, the first Hokage of Konoha and the ingenious seals she had invented and passed on, had helped not only put Whirlpool on the map but also made other nations fear them. Yet, provoke an open war like this…

"That Fukayama is going to get a piece of my mind." Naota clenched his fist, his eyes narrowing. It was clear the discussion would not be made with words.

Satomi put a hand on his chest to calm him down, but the seriousness of her expression never left her. "As much as I agree with you, that is not the reason I risked my life for."

Naota was tempted to laugh at her small joke but the seriousness of her voice made eye her carefully. "What's going on?"

Satomi hadn't been able to believe it when she had first been informed by it. It was something so strange and out of the blue that it almost seemed impossible for it to be happening and at a time like that this of everything. "We're at war with Konoha."

* * *

Naota rushed into the already chaotic room. There were people yelling, others were arguing amongst themselves and others decided that running up and down the room in madness would give them the answer they were looking for. This chaos wasn't something called for exactly, under dire circumstances people tended to act irrationally, Naota knew that, yet he also knew that letting ones emotions take control of one self wouldn't fix the situation at hand. What had to be done was to calmly asses the situation and look at the causes and consequences. Then, they could make an informed decision and proceed with caution to avoid further error. That's one the things his father had emphasized over the years, something that had been drilled on him since the day of his birth. Too bad most of the council hadn't been raised by his father.

"This is madness!" Daichi Fukayama leader, leader of the Barlavento Islands, yelled at his companion taking the scroll that the leader from the Kaza family was examining. The action was so sudden and brisk that she didn't have time to react properly before Fukayama started yelling again. "This most be a mistake! Konohagakure has been our ally for more than three hundred years! Sarutobi wouldn't just declare war on a powerful ally without heavy arguments to back it up."

"It's our ancestors fault for making us so dependent of them in the first place!" the leader from the Marugo family yelled over his fellow members. "Konoha has always taken advantage of us! Even since the beginning when they asked Mito-sama to partake in the sealing of the Nine Tails that was later confiscated by Konoha for more than four generations. Our forefathers should have never approved of that marriage."

"What does the ownership of the Nine Tails have to do with anything?" Fukayama asked throwing the scroll at Naota's direction. "The Nine Tails might be a powerful being but without Hashirama-dono here to control it's immense power, the tailed beasts are useless in battle. What's really strange here is the timing of the declaration. After so many years of friendship and trading, why now?"

Why indeed, Naota asked himself wondering the same thing as he read the scroll.

"Isn't it obvious? The Hokage and the Mizukage have met several times. Its not a secret that they have been talks of a mutual commercial alliance between both villages. Yagura of the mist wants to bring the Land of Water closer to the continent so they can find an excuse for an open war between our two villages." The leader from the Tokaji family reasoned, slamming his fist on the table. "The fact that we've depended on Konoha for so many years only strengthen our stupidity over the years. We should have never agreed to acquire the Azore archipielago. Not only do they not bring anything of value to our country, we are openly threatening the Land of Water in such a trade."

"Don't be so ridiculous." Naota finally voiced his opinion setting the scroll down on the table to anyone who wanted to take it. The information on it didn't offer much insight on the reason of the war and there was no point in re-reading the three lines written on it. It was clear that the Hokage had made a weird but clear enough move that they didn't understand yet, but would in the future. "The Azore archipielago has trading agreements with the Esashi continent something this council has been looking at for the past three hundred years. The Land of Demons and the Marsha Country are two village that could offer special support to our small nation. The fact that they are not connected with our continent gives us an insight whose side they will take when there really is another shinobi war. We can't lose that promise of alliance just because of speculation."

It was true. The Esashi country had been the only country in this part of the world that hadn't taken part in any of the two previous shinobi wars and there was only one reason for that: they were far away enough that attempting to invade it was a stupid idea that even the Raikage recognize. Having no border obligations with any other nations except with themselves, they could be as neutral and far away from the hypocritical politics that took part of the Kokka continent which Whirlpool and the other villages were on. Having someone neutral but powerful enough to make other villages hesitate on invading them on their side was something beyond simply expanding their trading options. Treaties and alliances could be broken easily, as Konoha had just demonstrated, but blood responsibilities that the Azore families brought with them (once Naoto and Satomi produced an heir) was something Whirlpool couldn't ignore. Breaking such a promising military stability to a nation that was constantly threatened by the Bloody Mist and it's allies was something only fools would do.

"We need to send a diplomatic representation of Whirlpool to Konoha and try to come with terms of negotiation." Naota spoke once again, making the room grow silent. "We don't have the power of resources to fight Konoha, not to mention the moral implications that would take on our people. Most of us have relatives and friends in their military force. Killing someone you know it's a lot different that killing someone that is trying to kill you."

"So what do we do?" Marugo asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "We can't wait for Konoha to invade our shores and take over our the council just because of a few blood relations with some of their people. Danzo is one of the most dangerous men I've ever come across with. If we surrender there is not telling what he might do to our country in the future."

"Danzo isn't part of the military." Naota tried to reason once more. "He can't even fight! He has no real power inside of Konoha except as an adviser to the Hokage."

"He has other ways to get his opinion around." Kaza agreed, nodding along. "He might not have much control over the military forces but he has influence over the commanders of their divisions."

"Not to mention his Root ANBU division. They might not bee as well trained as their ANBU, but powerful opponents don't always come in small numbers." Tokaji agreed, looking around to get others to agree on his opinion. "If we get our troops on the Land of Fire's shores we might stop the first wave of invasion from Konoha, giving us more time to think of a plan of attack.

"So what you are saying is that we should counterattack the declaration of Konoha with a full invasion of the continent?" Naota couldn't believe what he was hearing. "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard."

"What other choice do we have?" Kaza cried hysterically, making her seem much older than she really was. "Half our forces are at the border with Kirigakure, the ANBU is guarding the Moriguchi family leader and the other half are completing the missions that bring economical stability to our village. We won't have the man power for a counter attack if we let Konoha get to close. We need to act now before they start moving their forces."

"What we need to do first is find the reason behind _this_." Naota pointed to the scroll he'd just been holding. "Konoha would never break an alliance unless there is something more important in their agenda that the existence of Whirlpool threatens. If we find the reason behind the break of alliance maybe we can come to an agreement and avoid open war with the Land of Fire."

Some in the council looked at the younger Uzumaki like they had never seen him before. Naota had participated in the council numerous times in the past, voicing his opinions and coming up with ingenious solutions to some problems Whirlpool had been facing at the moment, something his father was extremely proud of, yet there were few council members that didn't like his new ideas and were dead set in their ways making Naota feel like he was a mere child playing at being an adult.

"You might be your fathers spokes man at the council for now Naota-kun," Fukayama spoke watching him with amusement in his eyes, like he was chastising a child for doing something he wasn't supposed to do. "But the vote hasn't been taken yet. There is still one person that could take your father's place in the Uzumaki chair in the future. Your opinions here are just that, opinions. You don't have any real power inside this council."

That Naota knew. There was another faction of the Uzumaki clan, the older faction that was not happy with his father choice to pass on the council seat to his eldest son. Some argued that he was far too young and inexperienced to take on such an important task. Others argued that Naota hadn't been prepared enough like Seiji had to take on the council, and others dared argue that Naota was merely looking out his well being and wasn't taking into account the well being of the Uzumaki family, something his fathers had found outrageous.

"You think he would marry someone he doesn't love if he were merely looking for himself?" his father had yelled at the protesters. "Just because he didn't grow up with war threatening his life it doesn't mean that he's not prepared to take his place as the leader of this country. We have to move past the pain and revenge and focus on our future with new peaceful ideas. War doesn't always get us what we want. You would be wise to understand that once and for all."

"As long as my father is the ruling member of my family and I, his eldest son, you will respect me as you have to respect my father."

The council members that had smiled at Fuyama's comment suddenly sobered, remembering that even though Naota wasn't an official member of the council yet, he had been appointed by the leader of the Uzumaki family, something the rest of the council had to respect. The last thing they wanted was to take on the most powerful family of Whirlpool as an enemy.

"What we need to do-" but Naota wasn't allowed to finish his sentence for the doors of the council room were unexpectedly revealing his younger sister. "Kushina?" Naota asked, losing his train of thought. The last thing he had been expecting to see at the moment was Kushina since she was supposed to be back in Konoha, under the Hokage's orders. What exactly was she doing here? Had the sudden war with Whirlpool driven her away? Or had she escaped when Konoha tried to use her as leverage? Did that meant war was really inevitable?

"Kushina does father know you are here?" Naota asked, making his way to were his sister was standing. "How did you get here? Does the Hokage know?" For the longest time she hadn't been able to leave Konoha without the Hokage's strict orders and set of bodyguards following her. "And more importantly, why isn't anyone with you?"

Kushina didn't answer. She just stared at Naota with eyes he had never seen. There was a pain in there. A kind of pain that was more than physical. Maybe there was something far bigger going on out there than what they wanted to realize. Maybe this war went beyond the political upheaval in the world. The fact that his sister was here without anyone knowing the reason it had to mean that the situation with Konoha was not an isolated incident. Did Kushina have anything to do with the sudden war with the land of Fire? The timing did seem a little coincidental and those words in the scroll…

_The friendship between our two villages has always been a fragile thing._

_Unfortunately our goals don't harmonize with the way Konoha is expected to grow in the future._

_As of today, Konohagakure and the Land of Fire will cease all ties with the Land of Eddies and it's ninja village Whirlpool._

"Kushina-" but before he could even try to get his sister to answer yet another round of his questions, she fell to the ground a pool of blood forming around her.

* * *

The salt water felt good on her face. It always seemed like forever to her whenever she was allowed to come visit her home land. If it were up to her she would have never left the land of Whirlpools. Even after all the friends she had managed to make in Konoha, she had always felt a piece of herself missing whenever she got back from a mission or headed home after a long night of drinking. The ocean had always been part of her, ever since she had been born. Being surrounded by trees, miles away from the shore, she could never understand how people lived like that.

Wincing as her fresh wound touched the salt, Kushina laid down on the sand and looked up at the sky. Millions of stars lay before her eyes, melting into each other creating a nice white blanket of light. This was another thing that she missed the most whenever she was in Konoha. The village lights, which were never really truly shut, would always block out the lights that the sky brought when it grew dark. Even if one were to visit the library at night, there would only be a couple of diamonds visible, something she had once told Minato about.

"You don't know what it's like," Kushina told the blond, watching the sky with yearning. "If we were back in Whirlpool you'll get to see the milky way before your eyes. You don't know what that is like. Millions and millions of tiny points of light melting into each other until they create this path of light that somehow illuminates the dark."

"Sounds kind of impressive." Minato had said, watching the village lights.

"You can't even imagine." Kushina muttered under her breath as waves washed over her.

"What can't I imagine?" a voice asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She sat up as quickly as she could, trying at the same time to turn around and face her brother but the exertions of her abdomen was not something her body was ready for yet and a sharp pain filled her, making her cry out and grasp her bandage.

"You haven't changed one bit Kushina," Naota said, walking up to her and sitting by her side. There was no sympathy for her in his tone of voice. "Always acting before thinking. Father would be proud if he were here."

A grim clouded her once relaxed features. "If you are here for a lecture then save it." Kushina didn't look at him, knowing that a scowl would adorn his features. She had taken it from her family, the doctors and even some of the council men that have visited her earlier at the hospital, she hadn't left to be fed up with questions and hypocritical words once more. What she wanted was peace. Something she knew she would get at her favorite place by the beach. Too bad, that place was no secret for her elder brother. "I don't need to hear it and the doctors forbade it. They think I have some kind of psychological trauma that prevents me from explaining in too much detail what happened. So if you're here to question me then you better-"

"Are you the reason we're at war with Konoha?"

The question had taken her back. She had not been expecting that. Not at all. Not ever. War with _Konoha_? Had she heard right? "We're at war-"

"A scroll came this morning with a declaration of war from the Hokage himself." Naota never looked at her, not even once and for some reason that hurt even more than the opening wound. "Then you show up covered in blood. I might now believe in coincidences, yet you can't argue that the timing couldn't be worse."

"I-"

"Kushina you are not a little girl anymore." Naota finally looked at her, a hard, serious, grave look on his face. His was not joking around and he wouldn't allow avoidances on the subject. "Lives are at stake here. War is not a joke. Death never is."

"I know that!" Kushina looked offended, glaring at her older brother. "I just-"

"Then why are you here?" Naota exploded, stating up from his sitting position, his cool demeanor gone. "Father didn't call you over. The council didn't call you over. There are not important dates coming nor the Hokage approved of this visit otherwise he would have sent you with bodyguards! The fact that you are here unauthorized and alone means that something has happen. Something that has to do with you and it is directly affecting us along the way. We are in the middle of a merger with a powerful set of islands that is angering one of the most powerful and savage shinobi in the world. We can't allow another of the five main shinobi villages to declare war on us. We don't have the man power nor the resources to fight both Kirigakure and Konohagakure in the same war in two different fronts. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

'_So, it's really happening…' _Kushina thought moving her gaze from her brother to the illuminated horizon. "It's really war, huh?" she asked, not bothering to answer Naota's question.

"It's funny," she continued, dropping her eyes to her hands that caressed the waves as they came and went. "I can hardly remembering him. I was really little when it happened, yet I can still recall the last thing he said to us. 'I'm fighting so you won't know war.' That's what he said. Do you remember? That's what he promised us. That's why he died. Or at least I had always thought so. Turns out, people are far more bored with their lives than you can imagine. Power, money, that's nothing compare to the excitement that they find in doing something cardinal. It gives them purpose. It gives them something to do. That's what war really is about. It eases the boredom of a bunch of idiots." She sighed, enjoying how the coldness of the water soothed her. Even in the middle of summer, she could feel autumn slowing coming from the south. "I don't know why we are at war with Konoha." She lied, never looking up. "But I know why I'm here. I escaped because of this."

Raising her left hand she showed Naota what she had been hiding under some bandages. The seal she share with Satoru. She knew that they would start asking questions once they saw it, so she had been careful enough to bandage her left arm and claim there was a deep bruise there. It had taken a lot of convincing for the doctors to leave it alone for they wanted to see just how bad it was, but she had managed to get her way. It was one of the things she was really good at; convincing people otherwise.

The shook on her brothers face was palpable. It was clear he had never seen one of these in real person, yet he knew what it meant. She hadn't been the only one that had studied forbidden fuinjutsu.

"That's a seikatsu seal!" Naota took her arm and raise it enough so he could have a better look at it, forcing Kushina's wound open. Her verbal protest was ignored. "Kushina when did you do this?" he asked, kneeling by her side when he saw her face full on pain.

"A few months ago," Kushina said, taking her arm back. It was bad enough that her side throbbed, it was another thing to have your brother grasp your arm like he was going to rip it off. "Someone I loved died and I was just trying to bring him back, you know? Using those medical jutsus that father taught us, but the wound was too close to the heart and the seals were not keeping the blood inside and he was losing consciousness and I don't know, I don't remember much of that night after that. All I know is that when I woke up after that, this appeared in my arm."

Naota tried to make sense of what she was saying without success. Kushina had never been good at explanations but what she was saying now made no sense at all. Who was she linked to? Why couldn't she remember it? And more importantly, how had she made it happen? The seikatsu seal was something the Uzumaki clan had seen only once before and that had been before the creation of the shinobi ninja's. It was seal that no body knew much about and that was why it had been forbidden, the fact that Kushina had even been able to make it…well he didn't exactly know what that meant, but it was something that would have grave consequences in the future. His father had always warned him so. The more simple the seal, the more consequential it would be to the user.

He was about to say as much when something snapped in him. Something he had read about this seal a long time ago.

"Kushina…is…the other person that has this seal… still alive?"

Kushina frowned looking at her brother with wonderment. What was he asking exactly. "Yes," she answered, trying to ignore the pang that nearly stopped her heart. "He is." That had been the deal here. She would share her life with the one at the end of this seal.

"Do you know what this seal means?" Naota asked, finally looking her in the eye. "Do you know what Seikatsu means?"

She had never been good at memorizing kanji and meanings. She was more visual than verbal, that was why, when she had found the seal, she was far more interested in what it could do than what it actually meant. Besides, Satoru was alive and that's what mattered to her. Everything after that was effectual.

"I know what it does." She answered, not liking how her brother was looking at her. It was almost like, he was scared, but of what exactly, she still didn't know.

"Seikatsu, means life in old kanji, meaning that the futatsu no en seikatsu seal, literally meaning, the two circles of life seal is a seal that binds the life of one person to the other until the dead comes back to life."

Kushina frowned once more. Naota was making no sense. If that's was true, why was the seal still here? Satoru was alive. If it only worked until he came back to life, then-

"That means, that your chakra, is being leaked into the dead body that you rescued. Which means that your chakra, is being transfered into someone else. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Naota asked desperately, grasping her shoulders with a force she never knew he had.

Did she? At this point she wasn't so sure.

"You might have more chakra than the average Uzumaki, but even you have a limit. When you reach that limit you will die."


	3. Sensou II

****Sensou II****

* * *

"_To win a war is a disastrous as to lose one." - Agatha Christie._

* * *

The war with Whirlpool was not something that was widely known. The Hokage had made a bid deal of keeping such international secret between a few trusted members inside the village, leading to less than a few people knowing about it. The inside circle of such secret consisted on the council of Konoha that was argued to be the advisers of the Hokage and led one to wonder why Danzo was even part of it. The clan leaders of Konoha, which were Hyuga Hiroo the strict father of the Hyuuga twins and the current leader of the Huyga Clan, Sarutobi Saori, lord Hokage's elder sister, since the Hokage lost his right to be part of any clan once he was proclaimed, Aburame Shun the aging leader of the Aburame clan, Akimichi Chojiro the leader of the Akimichi clan, Inuzuka Saki the leader of the wild dogs clan, Nara Shikatarou, Shikaku's step father and Yamanka Inohiko, the leader to the Yamanaka clan and, last but not least, the legendary Sanin. That last one was obvious seeing as they were the Hokage's students and deep trustees. Beyond that and even tough it was just a guarded secret, it was obvious that other people were bound to find out, like say, Satoru himself, who in spite of the terrible news still kept a smile to diverge people from really knowing how he really felt about the incoming war with a nation they'd been friends with since the creation of the village. Inoichi, who'd come to realize the terrible news by eavesdropping on his father's secret meetings with some people of his clan. Narato Sakiko, who was the owner of the fruit shop that was known to find out even the most secret of gossips (some people speculated that it was because Sarutobi Biwako, the Hokage's wife shopped there, slipping political gossip as she acquired her fruit) and by extent everyone and anyone who walked past her shop. And, off course, and for so reason it annoyed Satory the most, Namikaze Minato himself.

It wasn't that weird that Minato knew. Not only was he highly regarded by the Hokage himself, he was the excelling student of Jiraiya of the legendary Sanin, making him the trusting ear of the elder legendary shinobi. Minato was bound to find out about it from either source: the Hokage himself or Jiraiya and as far as he knew Jiraiya was the more likely sorce, for he had a tendency of talking a little too much with a few drinks on him. Since he was a regular costumer of the sake bar down the main road, it was a wonder why anyone who drank didn't know already. Maybe the old man really knew how to hold his liquor and had only passed the information along to Minato, because he was his favorite student. None the less, his blond competition knew about it.

Satoru couldn't for the life of him decide why that simple fact annoyed him so much. Minato was good friends with Kushina. He was good friends with Kushina. Everyone had expected the two closest male friends of the redheaded storm to eventually bond and become good friends, yet that never really happened. They _had_ hung out in the past, it wasn't like they were actively avoiding each other but Kushina had always been present buffering the tension that inexplicably grew between them. They had never been alone more than than the few minutes it took Kushina to go to the bathroom and beyond the three missions they'd had in the past, their contact was usually reserved to ask about Kushina. Had either one of them seen her, how was she doing, etc.

It wasn't that Satoru didn't like Minato, he did, he had always thought the blond was a capable and responsible shinobi, who excelled at everything he tried; it was just that Satoru knew that Minato's feeling for Kushina went beyond friendship, and that was something that threatened the Uchiha far more than he liked to admit. He didn't know why really, but maybe it had a lot to do with Kushina's crush on Minato that she just didn't want to admit. Even back at the academy when Kushina kept referring to Minato as banana head, everyone could see that those insult were only to hide her true feelings from the blond. And it had worked, Minato, as far as he knew, never suspected anything.

The truth was, Kushina just wanted Minato to acknowledge her. Being acknowledge by Minato equaled being acknowledge by everyone else equaled being awesome in their class. Being a foreigner, Kushina wanted more than anything to be accepted among her piers, but for some damn reason (and it had a lot to do with the genes of her clan), she had been born with the weirdest and least common hair color there ever was. Apart from the few Uzumaki that actually lived in Konoha, Kushina had been the only one of their classed with that set of hair. It was natural for kids their age to tease her. Kids often teased what they didn't understand. It was a natural step into their academy lives. Yet Kushina took it rather hard, specially when the perfect Minato didn't do anything about it. It annoyed her more than anything that someone like him would chose to ignore someone like her, so she tried to be better than him so he would have no choice but to look up at her. Yet, that never happened. Whenever Minato was involved, she always ended as number two.

It wasn't until a few years later when Minato rescued Kushina from those Kumo shinobi that she really started to see Minato as more than just her competition for the title for Hokage. That had become something more than just proving herself and to everyone else that she was as good or much better than the banana head. It was about gaining respect from someone she had always admired, something he knew all to well even if she'd never admit it outloud. Admiration was a feeling that could easily turn into love if one didn't thread carefully. It was thin line, something Satoru knew all to well, for his feelings for his redheaded friend had started like that.

'_It's not like Kushina still has feelings for Minato.'_ Satoru thought, walking through the gates of the Uchiha compound. '_And even if she did, it's not like she would ever admit it. She has a hard time coming to terms with her feelings about trivial things on it's own, admitting you like someone you used to have a rivalry with is even harder. She isn't someone who openly talks about herself, which is kind of ironic since she never shuts up.'_

Satoru smiled at that last thought. He didn't know why but Kushina's talk activeness always endeared him. Maybe it was because he came from a quiet house, were the only kind of speech heard from his parents was the polite chitchat during dinner. He had never really noticed it until he had invited Kushina once to spend the night.

"Are you're parents mad at each other?" she'd asked, settling down on a futon by his bed. The fact that his father had let her stay with him at all surprised him, yet he didn't dare question it.

"I don't think so," he said with a yawn, taken back by the question. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, they hardly spoke to one another during dinner. Is that common in your family?"

He didn't really know what to say to that. "My father works really hard all day so it's natural that he's tired in the evenings. My mother respects that I guess."

Since he had grown up with it was natural that he found it organic and it wasn't until a few weeks later that he noticed what Kushina was talking about. No one at the table spoke beyond the occasional forced and polite comment about their day. Even his little sister, Mikoto stood by that rule. No one talk beyond what was polite and no one deepened into what they were feeling.

Or maybe it just that he was comparing it to Kushina, who whenever she spoke, he would learn something different about her she'd always denied to answer otherwise. For someone who was so damn outgoing she sure was a hell close book. Or at least with him that was true. Maybe she spoke to Minato more openly. There it was again. Namikaze Minato appearing on his thoughts. Why was it that every time he thought of Kushina Minato would suddenly appear out of nowhere? It was almost like he wanted to think of them as a couple. '_Or at least as two people who are destined to be together.' _Satoru thought bitterly, reaching the entrance of his house without even realizing it. He would have walked straight to the door and slammed his face on it if Fugaku, one of his distant cousins opened the door.

Satoru stopped abruptly. "Ah." He said, all his thoughts of Kushina and Minato vanishing.

Fugaku was taken back too, yet the only sings of this were the slight raise of his eyebrows. "Ah, itoko-san, I was told you'd be out for the afternoon." Fugaku said, bowing slightly as a way of greeting.

"Fugaku-san," Satoru bowed too, but his was a more curt bow than Fugakus. He didn't know what it was about his elder cousin, but for some reason he had never liked him all that much. And even though Satoru would deny it if he were to be confronted, but he knew that those feelings of dislike had a lot to do with Kushina. "If you're looking for my father you have come at a wrong time. He's currently meeting with the Hokage about some security measures in the Jomyaku district."

"Yes. Your dear mother told me as much. But I didn't come seeking your father. I came to see Mikoto actually."

"My sister?" Satoru asked.

"Your sister." Fugaku confirmed, nodding slightly.

Which was followed by: "Why?"

"She pointed out that the Tatsumaki technique my team specializes in had some formation flaws. My team specializes in this jutsu that as you may know it, was my creation, but being pointed out that it might have a potential flaw that might leave us vulnerable to the enemy is certainly something I wanted to hear. So I set up a meeting with Mikoto-kun and we spent the afternoon discussing new battle formations that might strengthen the jutsu all together. What really surprised me was that even at such young age, Mikoto deeply understands how a battle team formation works in real combat."

Satoru didn't know why, but that last comment annoyed him. "Mikoto has been a Chunin for over two years now. Even if our generation doesn't know war like our parents have, she has been instructed on how to treat real battle circumstances."

Fugaku nodded slightly, folding his arms over his chest in a sort of dismissal way. "Too bad your father wasn't around though. I wanted to run by him these rumors about the impending war with Whirlpool. Even if the Hokage is doing an ok job keeping the civilians at bay about the news, most of the upper clans people are passing along the news about the war to their piers. It's not efficient to create chaos based on a sole rumor."

Satoru laughed sarcastically. "It's impossible to keep gossip at bay. It spreads even faster than fear."

"Maybe," Fugaku agreed stepping out of the threshold. "But keeping normality amongst ourselves is the highest priority of the police. We can't do that with fear flying around. I find it unbelievable but people would rather believe their shopkeeper than the Hokage himself. Sarutobi-sama would be wise to remember that."

"Then what do you supposed to police should do?" Satoru asked, his nerves on edge. What was it about this guy that made him so angry? "Round up all the gossipers and lock them up until the political situation is settled? If we start doing that people will start talking about how Uchiha police is abusing their power. One can't arrest another for merely talking."

"If we could do that, the village would so much more peaceful, don't you think?" Fugaku said, turning away to leave. "It would give people something else to think than the impending war. Good evening Satoru-kun, please send my regards to the commander."

What did _that _even meant? Satoru wondered repeating what Fugaku had said: _it would give people something else to think than the impending war. _Did Fugaku want the village to feel scared and threatened by the police? What good would that do? It would only confirm most of the stereotypes that Shunsho, one of the most respected Uchiha elders, was trying to change. Madara had done a lot of damage to the reputation of the Uchiha, something the second Hokage had punished them for. Even thought Sarutobi-sama was more lenient than his predecessors, there till was a clear layer of mistrust amongst the Uchiha and the rest of the Village. It was as if, everyone else was just wanting to see when the Uchiha would snap and just take over the village. It might seem ridiculous but it had happened once before. Satoru wondered if his father believed that as well and was trying his hardest to keep on the good side of the Senju. Deciding that he had to speak to his father about the war, Satrou walked into his house and left any thought of an Uchiha rebellion at the threshold.

* * *

"Whirlpool sent troops to the island of Waves." His father told him, signing some papers that were on his desk, not even bothering to glance or salute him. "The Hokage is debating whether to take action and send troops to guard the border or order Kura to move her group and send hourly reports on the actions of Whirlpool shinobi."

Kura Uchiha was the commander of the east border out post that had been set during the last war by the second Hokage. During those tumultuous times the post served nearly two thousand men, most of which were killed during Kirigakure's invasion of the continent. None the less, when the war ended and the peace negotiations started, Konoha kept the post but reduced the men in duty, for a patrolled border only sparkled more animosity amongst old enemies. Since the trip to the boarder with the Land of Whirlpool took nearly three days, sending an army from within Konoha was an inefficient idea. Moving what was supposed to be their line of defense only called for foreign lands to try and attack an almost defenseless land. They needed at least one thousand men to patrol the frontier with the land of Whirlpool, but since tension was so high right now, sending more troops would only confirm what was on everybody's mind, war with a former but very powerful ally.

"Sending more troops would only make the war inevitable." Satoru told his father, taking some documents from his desk and glancing them over. They were the new shifts of schedule the police were going to take. Apparently, the Hokage wanted the village as safe as the Uchiha could make it. "I know that the Hokage has sent the message proclaiming war, but since neither side has fired it could still be called a political war. If Whirlpool feels like Kononha is sending men to claim their islands they will respond with an attack. I doubt the Hokage is prepared to start a war when he could easily negotiate us out of it."

His father signed another set of papers and set the pen down on his desk. A thoughtful look crossed his eyes.

"The Hokage is known to be more of a political character than an warrior. Not that I'm shaming his battle skills but I believe he would much rather negotiate peace than force it." Sighing his father reclined on his chair and finally glanced up at him, wonder clouding his features. "It is strange. This morning I passed through the Uzumaki district of the village, you know, the one that is by the cherry blossom garden."

Satoru knew where it was. It was near the Hokage stone faces, next to the stairs one had to take to reach the library. It had previously been owned by the first Hokage. He had constructed the house to live with his wife and children once the village was done, but once he passed away, the house and the gardens came into possession of Mito Uzumaki, who'd lived there for nearly five generations. As the friendship between Konoha and Whirlpool strengthen over the years more political figures of the Uzumaki and other Whirlpool clans came to live by the district, which in turn became a sort of mini village within the village itself. Shops were constructed, inns were developed and the once nearly lonely house that was constructed a long time ago, was almost clouded by others. During the spring, many people visited the cherry blossom gardens to continue a tradition the Uzumaki family had started: a cherry blossom sightseeing festival. Satoru had gone every year since he met Kushina. Having inherited the title of her former ancestor as ambassador of Whirlpool amongst Konoha, she in turn inherited the house that was once Mito's and the responsibility it came with. Satoru hadn't even stepped foot near the Uzumaki district ever since that one night, over two months ago, when he woke up at the hospital and Kushina had come to say goodbye in a rushed fashion. He now had to wonder if it's residents had gone home.

"There are still some families there, but apparently they had received orders from the council about leaving the continent soon. Whirlpool doesn't want any hostages if a war were to break between our villages. But what I found strange was that your friend, Kushina-kun, well she wasn't there at the moment." Aoi Uchiha looked at his eldest son straight in the eye, as if he wanted to extract the information he needed just by looking at him. "I don't suppose you know where she went?"

Satoru inclined his head to the side. "And why would I know that?" he asked, wondering why his father was asking _him_ and not the Hokage himself. Kushina was under strict orders from above.

"She's your friend and you certainly spend a lot of time together." His father rose from his desk and walked toward the window, locking his hands behind his back. "It's only natural for me to assume that she might have told you were she went."

Satoru thought back to that night Kushina visited him at the hospital. It had all been rushed, like she was trying to get as far away from Konoha in the shortest time possible. She hadn't said anything about where she was going. Or at least he didn't remember her saying anything about it. But now that he really forced himself to think back about that night, Kushina had said something about the seal that had appeared on his right wrist.

"_It's a binding seal," she said looking at her own left wrist where two intertwined circles were tattooed. "It binds the bearers together. It binds our lives together."_

What had she meant by that? Binding someone's lives? Hadn't Hitoshi told him that he'd been dead when he'd been brought to the hospital? If that's true why was he alive now? And why did Kushina also have that seal on her? What did it even mean? And why was she running away form Konoha? She had made it sound like she was running away from _someone _rather than something. But who exactly?

The look his father gave him over his shoulder woke him up from his memory. He would have to find out about that seal later. "I don't know." His voice came out horsed, almost like he was hiding something. He cleared his throat and clarified his statement. "I don't know. Kushina never mentioned any plans of leaving. She was far more interested in finding an apartment to move into, said that house was too big for her alone."

His father returned to facing the window. "She's been missing for over three weeks. The Hokage has made it seem like she has been on a mission, but in reality he's sent various ANBU squadrons to look for her."

"Kushina's been missing?" Satoru asked, not really knowing why that statement surprised him so much. He knew he she was leaving the village. She had told him as much, but he had always assumed that she was at Whirlpool with her family and her friends. Maybe something had happened to her along the way. Maybe whomever was after her had gotten to her first. Could it be that the Hokage knew that and was dispatching those ANBU squadrons to look for her because she was in danger? Kushina was one of the best shinobi the village had to offer after all.

"No nobody besides the council knows this off course." His father went on. "I was notified about it only because the Hokage has requested help from the Uchiha police and even then I'm only to relay this information amongst those I trust the most. You being my son and her friend, well, I actually expected you would contribute to this mission more than you have really."

Satoru resisted the urge to roll his eyes. That was so like his father. Praise him and then stab him. It was like he was never proud enough of him.

"Has the Hokage ask Whirlpool?" Satoru asked, pulling the most obvious logical thread. If she where to leave the village it was natural to assumed that her first choice would be to go back to her home town.

"No. Whirlpool is not likely to know about the whereabouts of Kushina or else they would have notified Konoha."

"Is that true?" Satoru asked, rolling it over in his mind. "With the war and everything…I doubt Whirlpool would cooperate much with us at this point. Unless…" he didn't want to say it, he didn't even want to think it, but there might be a chance that everything that had happened in the past few months had more to do with Kushina that he wanted to admit. There was something that he was missing here. "Unless Kushina is the whole reason we have declared war with Whirlpool."

His father turned back to him. Satoru could never really see what was on his mind, he had the hardest face to crack. Too bad he hadn't inherited that from his father. The things he would win at poker.

"I don't know." His father admitted, sounding like he regretted it. If there was one thing that Aoi Uchiha hated was being outside of the knowledge loop. "The Hokage and his advisers won't say much about it. The war is still brand news to everyone and he wants to keep it secret for as long as it's possible. A chaotic population is far harder to control than the invasion of an enemy."

Satoru rolled his eyes. "Fugaku said the same thing."

That was news to his father. "Fugaku was here?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Satoru copied him. "I thought you knew. Didn't Mikoto told you about that?"

"He came to see Mikoto?" His father questioned once more. It was if the whole thing was brand news to him. Satoru had naturaly assumed someone had notified him already.

"He was here this afternoon. Apparently Mikoto had some critical thinking about some technique he uses with his team." Satoru said, trying to remember exactly why Fugaku had come. "I didn't know Mikoto was that far experienced on team techniques for that matter."

But his father was no longer listening to him. There was a troubled look in his eyes and by his posture it almost seemed like a heavy weight had fallen on his shoulders.

"Father?" Satrou asked, walking toward his fathers desk.

"So it's really happening." His father sighed, crashing down on his chair once more.

"What is happening?" Satoru asked, more confused than ever. Sure, he had never really liked the branch of the Uchiha where Fugaku came from but he always assumed he was the only one of his family that felt that, and besides, he was pretty sure that dislike had a lot to do with Kushina. She _hated_ Fugaku. Maybe some of that hate had rolled into him.

"As you know the leadership of the Uchiha isn't something you inherit like in most clans." Satoru nodded, knowing that the next clan leader would be chosen by the clan elders. They usually took into account what that person would bring into the clan. Madara had been chosen because in those times of war he was the strongest of the Uchiha. His father had been chosen because of the close relationship he had with Miyoko, a direct ancestor to Hashirama Senju and with who he was supposed to be having a secret affair, since he named his first daughter after her. The clan leaders were far more interested in the repair of the Uchiha-Senju relationship that had been broken when Madara had attacked the village, tan actually strengthening the clan on itself. There were still many who thought the Uchiha might rebel against the current system, and a lot believed that that was the reason no Uchiha was ever chosen as candidate for Hokage. If the Uchiha could repair their former friendship with the Senju, there was a chance the village would start trusting them again. And if they were lucky enough, in a few years an Uchiha's face would watch over the village.

"Sojuro told me that Shinshaku was trying to persuade the elders of considering his first born as the next clan leader." Sojuro was his fathers mentor. An elderly Uchiha who had served the village for far more years that anyone cared to count. He wasn't in the elders council, but he had strings inside of it that could easily affect most votes if he really wanted to. For the most part he enjoyed his retired life. Yet, if he had passed along such information it was because he was worried about a future vote. "Fugaku comes from the side of the family that Madara came from. They only care about strengthening the clan without taking into account that we live by a set of rules that the second imposed on us for fear of another Uchiha revolution. They believed that we Uchiha had been overpowered by the Senjuu and are loosing our voice inside our own village."

"Well, that is kind of true." Satoru said, hating to play devils advocate. "There are hardly any Uchiha members inside the government and when was the last time the Hokage asked for our help when-"

"That's not the point!" His father slammed his fist on the table. "They will try to convince the clan to make a revolution of some sort. When two powerful clans fight against each other…for the sake of the king we need to prevent that from happening. An internal war is all our enemies needs to overtake us."

Satrou frowned, not really getting was his father was saying. "Aren't you being a little over paranoid?" he asked. His father didn't even look at him, so he continued. "You are barely forty years old. Even if you retire early I doubt-"

"How old is your sister now?" his father interrupted him.

"Whaa - Mikoto? Sixteen."

"Two more years and she will be of age."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Satoru held his hands in the air and looked at his father like he had never seen him before. The whole essence of what he was saying dawning at him. "Are you saying that Fugaku is trying to seduce Mikoto so she will agree to marry him so he will have a better chance at becoming the next clan leader?" His father only stared at him with a blank expression. "What about Mikoto's feelings? Does she even like him? I don't think-"

"Mikoto is still a young girl, but some day she will grow up from the mold we made her into." His father sighed, hiding his face in his hands. "Once she turns eighteen she will be the owner of her life. Until then we can protect her from others but eventually she will have to face reality head on. I fear she will chose wrong when that day comes."

Satoru was more confused than ever. "What about-"

"Never mind that." His father waved his hands in dismissal. "Please send this scrolls to the Hokage, he will be expecting them."

The message was clear, so without another word Satoru picked the scrolls from his father's desk, bowed in respect and left the office.

* * *

Getting something to the Hokage in and on itself had always been kind of a tricky think. Not only did one had to go to incredible stretches just to _get _a permission for an appointment, one had to fill an incredibly long and detailed formabout what the visit was regarding, how long it was going to take and if you were bringing any kind of packages or information, one had to describe what it contained. So it didn't surprise Satoru that the main receptionist of the Hokage tower kept rebuffing his intentions of just leaving the package with her so he could get on with his day.

"I'm sorry but I'm not authorized to receive anything that isn't singed by the mailing department." A girl of no older than thirty told him shaking her head.

Satoru closed his fist in annoyance. "But I just need to deliver this to the Hokage and get on with my day. Couldn't you just skip the bureaucracy and just get him this to his personal assistant?"

"Like I said," the receptionists repeated, sounding as annoyed as he felt. "I don't have the authorization to receive anything that hasn't been previously checked by the mailing department. If you like I could give you a form that would allow you to leave a package in the mailing room."

Satoru sighed in defeat. "Fine," he said. "Give me the stupid form."

"I'm sorry but for that you'll have to ask Emi in the delivery department." She apologized once more, making Satoru open his eyes wide incredulously.

"They why did you tell me you had the form?" he asked.

"I didn't. It's like I said, I'm not authorized to give anything to anyone. I'm just here to answer questions about the tower." She actually sounded like she believed that. "Do you want me to point you in the direction of the mailing room?"

"No thank you." Satoru mumbled through his teeth, turning on his heels. "You've been wonderful help."

"Thank you." She said, sounding convinced.

'_Oh my god,'_ Satoru thought, wondering why the Hokage even kept her. Maybe he really was the lecher that everyone claimed he was and he had only hired her to have something to look at while his wife was busy. Satoru laughed at his own thought. That certainly was something Kushina would say. '_Now what?'_ he thought, wondering what he was going to do about that stupid scroll in his hand. His father was most likely expecting an answer from the Hokage today, so he was to deliver this today if he didn't want to explain to his father about the incredibly tedious bureaucracy the Hokage tower had. He had to come up with a plan to get this into the mailing room without filling any more forms. Maybe he could sneak into the maling room and just leave the scroll there when no one was looking. That would not only save time but he was sure that it would be delivered right away if they thought it was urgent. All he had to do was-

"Satoru-kun?" a familiar voice woke him up from his thoughts, making him turn around to see who was calling him.

"Emi?" Satoru asked not really believing his eyes. Emi Uchiha had been his childhood friend up until they graduated and he had been placed on Kushina's team. She had been in his class and next door neighbor, but ever since his father moved to another part of the Uchiha district and the graduation from the academy, they hadn't see each other that much. Satoru could still remember his late night play dates on the park near the training grounds. "It's been such a long time!" Satoru smiled enthusiastically. Seeing an old friend was always good. "How are you?"

"Busy," she admitted and only now did he noticed that she was carrying more things than she could handle. "Could you help me with this? I think my arms are about to give up."

"Off course." Satoru said, feeling like a jerk. He should have offered instead of being asked to. "So you work here I take?"

Emi resumed her pace and Satoru followed her. "For the time being. I'm waiting for the Jonin exams to start soon so I can finally become a teacher."

"You're planing on taking your own team?" Satoru asked, wonder in his voice.

"I am." She agreed, nodding along. "It's always been a dream of mine, to teach I mean. But the academy has enough teachers as it is so I asked the Hokage about taking on a team. He said only Jonins were allowed to do that, but he said that if I get to become a Jonin then he'll make sure the next badge of fresh academy kids will become my students."

Satoru had never really thought about that. He had become a Jonin less than four months ago so he was still getting used to the experience of an A mission. Becoming a teacher had never been on his plans at all and he knew that there just weren't enough volunteers among the Jonin for the job, so sooner or later the Hokage would assign him a team. Luckily that only happened ofter his twentieth birthday, so he still had a few years ahead.

"You've always been good with kids." Satoru reminisced, thinking back to when she would help him babysit his sister. It just seemed like it came naturally to her. Having a team to actually teach something, well he knew just how tedious that could be. All those years with Kushina had taught him more than he liked to admit. "And you have the patients of a saint. Managing your own team is going to be tougher than you think but I guess you are up to it?"

"I am." She agreed happily taking the scrolls and papers from him. "So what are you doing here? I doubt you came just to see me?"

Satoru felt a little guilty about that. Ever since graduation they barely spoke now. It was a shame to lose such a good friend. "I came to see the Hokage about a scroll that my father wants him to look over, but for some reason the bureaucratic system in this place is completely messed up. You can't get anything anywhere without filling ten forms."

Emi laughed. "It's the peace time. There were so many people out of job that the council had to come up with a system that would create jobs without militarizing the village. Creating useless jobs on the Hokage tower has been both good and a pain in the ass."

"Whatever." Satoru rolled his eyes.

"But if it's really that urgent I could take care of that scroll for you."

Satoru looked at her again. "But how? I tried and the girl at the front desk won't even - wait are you that Emi? As in the head of the mailing department? Meaning I could just slip you this and you would make sure the Hokage gets it today?"

"Well…" Emi said giving him a sly smile. "It's customary that you fill some forms about the package but I could always let it slide if you agree to buy me dinner tonight. You know, as an old friends favor."

"Anywhere you want!" Satoru laughed hugging her tightly, not really aware of his actions. "Just name it."

Emi blushed deeply and almost dropped the documents in her arms. Once Satoru finally let her go, she blushed even deeper and looked at the ground to avoid him knowing about the blush. "Yeah well, you _are _an old acquaintance of mine and it would be rude not to. For the friendship all." She wasn't a rambler, she had never been, but for some reason whenever Satoru was around she tended to get shyer than she really was. "Anyways, I have to go. So if you could just put the scroll on top of everything else I have, I will be willing to go through incredible lengths to get it done."

Satoru completely oblivious about her behavior joked. "Hey it's not like you are getting this for free? You managed to trick me into a date, ya' know?"

The mere mention of them getting dinner as a date made her stutter slightly. "A-as a thank you! How do you expect me to do it otherwise?"

"Fine. Whatever. Just make sure the Hokage gets that today!" Satoru turned on his heels and motioned to leave, stopping in his tracks once he realized they hadn't agreed on a place. "I'll see you at eight in front of Ichiraku's ramen stall. Don't be late!"

And with that he waved goodbye, giving her a slight smile.

Emi, who'd been smiling all along, turned serious, realizing something she had forgotten to think about. "Ichirakus? That's Uzumaki-san's place. Is she going to?" the mere thought left her a little heart broken, because even thought she knew Satoru was only joking when he'd said it was a date, she had assumed it would only be the two of them. Last things she wanted was for Kushina to show up and Satoru to shift his attention to the redhead instead. Because even though she knew Satoru thought no body knew, everyone with eyes could clearly see that his childhood crush had a crush on the beautiful redheaded. And could she blame him? As far as she knew half the male population in the village felt the same way. Too bad she had an explosive personality, otherwise she would have been swarmed with dates.

Sighing, Emi turned the door knob and entered her office. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Running into Minato was kind of strange thing. They didn't hang out at the same places, they didn't have any friends in common, except for Kushina and ever since Satoru had finally accepted that he had a crush on his best friend, he had been doing his best to avoid the blond all together. Last thing he wanted to see was Minato making his move on his best friend and crush. Yet, the universe had it set out so that when he was leaving the Hokage's tower to grab some lunch at the nearest sushi bar, Minato would just be returning from what he assumed was a pretty messed up mission seeing as he was completely covered in mud.

Both men would have bumped into each other if they hadn't stopped dead in their tracks once they spotted one another.

"Minato." Satoru said at the same time that Minato said.

"Satoru-san."

"You can call me Satoru," Satoru waved his hand in dismissal. "We've known each other for years now."

"Through Kushina." Minato nodded, giving him a pleasant smile. "Yes."

"Yes." Satoru repeated as politely. Nodding along the two of them fell into an awkward silence.

"So are you just getting back from a mission? Or is that because of some training you are doing?" Satoru tried to break the silence, realizing all too late that he could have just waved goodbye and left.

"A little bit of both." Minato replied politely. You could never tell when he didn't like someone, he was the most polite person Satoru had ever met. He could have been cursing him up in his mind right now and Satoru wouldn't have been able to tell. "I've been working on a new jutsu that Kushina had been helping me with, but for the past few weeks I've had to cope with it for myself."

"Oh, ah, yeah," Satoru stuttered not really knowing if Minato knew the extended truth about where she was. "She's been on a mission for these past few weeks as I understand it and I guess she-"

"I know she left the village two months ago." Minato interrupted him, clearly knowing what to say and who to say it. "She told me as much."

"She did?" Satoru asked, more surprised than jealous. He had always assumed he had been the only one Kushina had told him about where she was going. "Did she tell you where she was leaving?"

Minato frowned at that question. "I'd assumed she told you."

"She didn't."

"She didn't tell me either."

"But you know where she is."

"I have a couple of ideas but no hard proof to back them up."

Satoru waited for him to continued, but when he didn't he asked: "Like?"

Minato sighed, looking past him toward the Hokage tower. "Like Whirlpool. It's only natural to assume she left for her home town to seek refuge."

Satoru nodded along. "I thought so too, but wouldn't you say that Whirlpool would notify Konoha if she suddenly appeared there without permission?"

"Kushina is not Konoha's prisoner," Minato reminded Satoru, using a sense of tone that made Satoru feel like he as being scolded by his parents about saying something inappropriate. "She can come and go as she pleases."

"But…during war?"

"We are still not at war with Whirlpool." Minato clarified, using that same tone as before. Satoru was starting to get annoyed by the blond. "And even if we were, why would Whirlpool tell us about where their most precious person would be hiding? Kushina is far more valuable for them than she's for us."

"If that's true why was she requested to move whens he was barely five years old?" Satoru asked a question that had always been on his mind and that for some reason Kushina had always refused to answer. "Don't you find it odd that she had to be chosen out of all the people in Whirlpool to come to Konoha?"

"Not really," Minato looked back at him, something in his eyes that Satoru couldn't place. Was that anger? "Mito-sama was hanging by a threat and she had been the Whirlpool representative in Konoha for over three generations. The Uzumaki clan would naturally want to send another one of them to fill the whole that she left behind. Kushina was the only one of her family that didn't have any political obligation to remain in her village, so she had been sent by his father, at a young age, I suppose to immerse in our culture and become part of Konoha naturally without loosing that obligation along the way. Once she turned eighteen she would be part of the clan council that oversees the village. She was to be what Mito-sama was to us once."

So Kushina did open up more to Minato than he did with him. Nearly ten years of friendship and she had never mentioned her reason for being her. It was pretty obvious that Kushina liked Minato better, or else he would have known about it too.

That thought angered him in a way he didn't know he could feel toward someone else. It was enough to know that he had to share his friend with someone else but to find out that that someone knew more about her than he did, well, it sounded complicated and completely childish but it made him jealous. He was about to thank Minato and leave when another thought occurred to him.

"If you know all that and you know where she went, why aren't you doing something about bringing her back?" Satoru asked, anger clouding his thoughts.

Minato narrowed his eyes at him. It was a weird look on someone who was so nice all the time. "Because, as you may know, she was running away from someone that was trying to harm her."

So it really was someone! He knew it. "But who?"

"I don't know." Minato shock his head, sounding like he regretted the whole thing. "I tried asking her that night when we came back to get you to the hospital but she refused to tell me. She only said that she needed to get somethings figured out and that it was likely that the village would chase after her like a rogue shinobi. She sounded quite desperate and she would have gone with her but she put a weird seal on me."

"You too?" Satoru asked, looking down at Minato's wrist. They were covered by his uniform.

"Huh?"

Not really knowing how to explain that, Satoru lifted his right sleeve and showed him the intertwined circles that covered his wrist. Maybe if Minato share this seal he would finally get some answers. "The night I woke up Kushina came into my room and started babbling about this. She had one just like it but she wasn't making sense about it. I wasn't able to get much out of her. All she said was that it binds the bearers together."

Minato turned serious, a concerned expression on his face, yet he didn't say anything. He took Satoru's wrist and examined the seal carefully, almost as if he wanted to carve a mental picture about it in his mind. After what felt like the most uncomfortable thirty seconds of his life, Minato let him go.

"No," he finally said, his mind else where. "Mine was different. I've never seen something like that before. Maybe you ought to ask lord Hokage about it."

'_And risk having to fill ten forms, no thank you.' _Satoru thought dismissing the idea. Maybe he could find some books about Uzumaki sealing at the library.

"I have some books about sealing that Kushina lent me. Maybe I could do some research about it and let you know." Minato offered.

Satoru frowned, but said: "Thanks." And when that seemed a little too curt he added. "I guess I owe you one then."

"Don't worry about it. It's my pleasure." Minato dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

Both teens bowed goodbye and prepared to leave when the blond said something that Satoru never thought we would hear.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Minato said talking over his shoulder. "Lord Hokage wants to send some shinobi to the east post by the border with Kirigakure, you know, the one that is being commanded by-"

"Kura," Satoru interrupted. "Yes. I know. My father told me."

Minato turned to him fully. "Well I was speaking with lord Hokage about the possibility of going myself, you know as a resonance team to determine the situation at the border. I thought it would give me a chance to know where Kushina is and how she's doing."

Satoru looked at the blond with interest, waiting for him to finish his statement.

"And I know that I have a special permit to do it, but if you really are that concerned about Kushina I guess I could extend that permit to allow you to come with me too."

Satoru's heart skipped at beat. He had never thought of that possibility. He had always assumed that he would hear news about Kushina once she finally got up her ass and wrote him a letter, but having a chance of patrolling the border with Whirlpool was far more efficient than waiting for her to write something. The closer he was to her village, the more accurate the information. And maybe, if he was lucky enough, he would meet a master seal that would finally explain to him what the seal on his arm meant. This was an opportunity he couldn't pass.

"When are you leaving?" Satoru asked, his mind listing the number of people he would need to talk to.

"In three days." Minato answered.

"If you make it by tomorrow I'll personally make sure my father sends a formal request."

Minato raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

"I'll be in touch."

And with that Satou finally turned around and headed home.


	4. Sensou III

**Sensou III**

* * *

_"In times of peace prepare for war." - Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus._

* * *

The healing process was faster than everyone expected. In the following week and a half the Whirlpool doctors watched with amazement how Kushina healed without any further need of medical assistance. Many left wondering what was it about this particular redheaded that made her heal almost instantaneously. Kushina didn't like people prying and the only answer to the constant comments of her doctors was that she just had a higher level of healing than most. That didn't exactly shut them up, but at least that got them off her.

Settling down once again in her home village was another story. That first week when she had arrived many of her friends and family visited for it had been over three years since she had last seen her. Many congratulated her on her promotion to Jonin and wondered how long she was planing on staying. She she hadn't really thought about it all, she would usually answer something along the lines of 'until my father needs me' which led them to ask in turn about her older brother, Naota.

It was common knowledge that Naota had taken the responsibility of becoming the next clan leader once her father either retired or met an early death. Since the first scenario was more likely to happen, Naota had a long way to go before he was formally introduced as Uzumaki-dono. Still, his father had Naota take some of his responsibilities off his shoulder and was appearing more often than not on official appearances that his father couldn't attend. This off course left little to no free time for Naota.

"Wouldn't you want to become the next clan leader?" Naota asked Kushina one day while they were walking along side the beach near their house. "You'll get the power to boss everyone around, just like you did back when you were young. But this time people actually have to obey you."

Kushina punched him in the arm. "Too much work. I don't want to be tied down on a desk job."

"It won't technically be a desk job." Naota had pointed out, looking a his little sister from the corner of his eyes. "You'll get to do plenty of traveling and drinking on the job. Haven't you been to one of those council parties? The last thing on those geezers mind is politics."

"What good is traveling when people only show you what they want you to see?" Kushina wondered, looking out the melting sun. It had been such a long time since she'd glanced at orange and red water. Konoha had a small lake near the training grounds that had been made artificially to simulate a fight near water, but it was nothing compare to the smell of salt in the air. Living in the middle of a continent had been one of the few things Kushina hate about Konoha. Being so far away from the sea when she had been born in it. "And I doubt there'll be much traveling now with the war and all."

Naota casted his eyes on the ground, a grim feeling washing over him. It was true. They were supposed to be at war with Konoha. On paper at least. Only no one had fired the first kunai. It could still be called a political war.

"Another war." Naota sighed, glancing behind him to were the first village lights were starting to appear. "Aren't people tired of making meaningless wars? What has the world come to when the only thing world leaders think about is how to send people to die?"

"Konoha hasn't even fired the first kunai. You could always say that it's a paper war."

"Konoha hasn't attacked because we haven't attacked." Naota clarified looking over at his sister. "And we haven't done attacked because we are waiting for Kirigakure. It's like the whole world has decided to wait and see what the biggest mad man will do to finally decide and do something about it."

"How many times did you say do in that sentence?" Naota gave her a look. Kushina sighed, turning serious again. "Why hasn't Kirigakure made it's move?"

This made Naota ponder the question. "We don't know yet." He answered honestly. "We sent some ANBU over the border to try and figure out what Kirigkaure is waiting for. Rumor has it, it has something to do with his leader."

"The mizukage?" Naota nodded. "What about him?"

"We are not certain yet. We are still wondering why he just decided to quiet down, after three years of making threats. The incorporation of the Azore Islands has angered a lot of people. The militarization of the islands has only provoked the Mizukage further, yet, not a single move?" Kushina didn't really understand much of what her brother was saying, but it was only because she wasn't up to date about what her native village had been doing for the past three years. "Rumor has it, the internal conflict between civilians and shinobi inside Kiri has turned for the worst. Did you know that recently graduated academy kids are forced to kill each other if they wish to move up the ranks?" Kushina grimaced at this, but said nothing. "A village this blood thirsty can't be stable. Wars are always ranging. People are constantly getting killed. The government won't do anything about it. It's chaos there."

"Worst part is we have to deal with them as our neighbors."

"Worst part is, the Mizukage is the three tailed jinchuuriki."

Having been a jinchuriki for nearly ten years, Kushina would think that she was fine about such term, but once that word rolled out of her brothers lips, something inside her broke. It seemed stupid really, it wasn't like he was addressing her directly. Heck, Kushina knew for a fact that there were barely four people in the world that knew what she was, yet there was just something about what people thought of them that scared her to think that even the people who've known hear all her life would start to think the same way about her. Stereotypes, she discovered, applied to even those who were slightly similiar.

"How-How would you know that?" Kushina asked, heart racing. If he knew she was the Nine tailed jinchuuriki? Would he look at her any differently? Would he love her all the same? Would he still call her his sister?

"One of our people who's been acting as double agent sent us a report about how the Mizukage has a weird seal on his stomach." Naota retold his sister. "They've used a water seal so we know it's not stable. It also seems like there's something controlling the Mizukage since we have reports of incidents where he has snapped and killed everyone around him in a fit of mania. More people have died inside their government towers than because of their internal war. Someone so unbalanced has got to be controlled by something else. Something that doesn't listen to reason or posses guilt and remorse. Something like that could only mean a tailed beast acting in his place. Weird thing is that ever since the last massacre even his closest advisers have stopped visiting him, for fear he might kill them. This off course has caused a lot of power shift around the village."

Kushina listened with a pang of guilt threatening to make her burst into tears. That mania incidents, the unbalanced personality, that raving thirst for blood, she knew it all too well. Just mere weeks ago she had killed seventeen people without even stopping to realize what she was doing. It was strange. After nearly ten years of having that thing inside her, she had never felt it before. That raging anger that had surged from within her when that girl in the dog's mask threatened to have someone she loved killed. It was almost like the nine tails felt the same way about the people she care about, but she quickly dismissed that idea. It had just wanted to spill blood.

Composing herself she pushed the guilt to the back of her mind and asked the only obvious follow up question. "That still doesn't explain why Kirigakure hasn't attacked us."

Naota moved his head to the side and asked. "Why don't you tell me, sis? Why do you think Kiri hasn't made it's move?"

They were going to play that game now? Naota had a tendency to test her to see if she was as smart as she said she was, laying out clues and seeing if she could figure out what he was thinking. Sometimes she got it, sometimes she didn't. It all depended on the situation and how tired she felt. Except now it felt like he was more than just testing how well she could connect the dots. She had to anticipate the enemies moves.

"Well, we know that Kirigakure is currently in the middle of a civil war against those who have bloodline limit but at the same time the Mizukage has been trying to get back the islands on the south that were bought from them during the last century." Kushina thought of all the things she knew about Kirigakure. There wasn't much there. Few people had gone and come back, and those who did, spoke balderdash. Still, she had all the information she needed. "The lack of attack could only be because of three reasons: the first one is that the Mizukage is waiting for us to enter physical war with Konoha so that our forces will be divided and they'll have it easier in claiming the islands in the south, only the Mizukage has been known for his blood thirst so saving lives it's not really in his plans. The second reason might be because the Mizukage hasn't got the man forces to spare and rage war against us, since most of their ANBU is rogue and half of the seven sword's men are lunatic who won't obey orders, so he's either waiting for the internal war to come to a low point and use that thirst for revenge and attack us or…"

"Or?" Naota continued, having figured out those two scenarios but intrigued about the third one.

"Or he's dead." Kushina finished simply, rather proud of herself.

"How can he be dead?" Naota asked, thinking that maybe he'd over estimated Kushina. "If he were dead the village would have gone into chaos."

"Think about it!" Kushina urged, a sly smile crossing her face. "Nobody has seen him in quite some time. There has been some unauthorized power shifts. He still hasn't made his move against us, even when we are at our most vulnerable state. Someone that unstable would have at least sent some shinobi to attack Kosrae. There are no shinobi there, the closest military post is nearly three hundred miles away. It's the perfect opportunity to start the war he had always been dreaming of. If he hasn't done that-" Kushina stopped her train of thought realizing something. It was so obvious! Sometimes she didn't see the forest for the trees.

"If he hasn't done that…" Naota tried to make his sister continue but he had completely lost her. "Are you saying he's been killed by his government?"

Kushina wasn't really listening, but she nodded along none the less. "Or maybe he was over powered by his tailed beast." She said more to herself than to him. "I have to get dad to let me go to Kosrae. I need to find out if the Mizukage is still alive."

"Whoa. Slow down." Naota said, raising his hands in the air. "You have just been dispatched from the hospital, not to mention you are in political danger of being kidnapped by Konoha. I don't think-"

But Kushina didn't stay around too hear the rest of his speech. She turned on her heels and disappeared with a puff of smoke.

* * *

Convincing her father on letting her go without actually saying what was it she wanted to do in the small island had been no small feat. He had refused instantaneously without even hearing her whole plan. Apparently both her brother and father thought she was planning to give herself to Kirigakure on a silver platter. Did they really think she was dumb enough as to let a mad man known she was there unprotected? If the Mizukage was really trying to start a war, kidnapping her would be the straw that would breaks the camel's back. All Whirlpool needed was a reason to take revenge on Kirigakure's past actions and what better excuse than to claim that it was just to rescue Kushina? She knew for a fact that Whirlpool had never done anything to openly avenge her elder brothers death and that had been reason enough to actually start a war with the land of water. Instead they'd let it pass and had tried and failed to reach an understanding with the Bloody Mist. Between power shifts and internal wars, one could not hope that a singed piece of paper would hold any weight. Besides, the reason for her coming at all was well worth losing her life over. After all, if she really did get the answers she was looking for, it would not only save her but Satoru as well.

Besides it wasn't like she was going there blinded. She could always argue that her reasons were scientifically driven: to confirm long lost rumors about how people who were forced into Jinchuriki's would eventually lose their sanity. It was not secret that the last Sunagakure Jinchuriki had snapped and taken his life after what was nearly thirty years of slavery for the Sand Village. Did all Jinchuriki's ended like that? Mito hadn't, but Kushina knew she was the exception to the exception. She was the only shonobi alive that had lived for more than three generations, helped fund one of the most powerful shonobi villages in the world, give birth to one of the most respected women shinbo of all times and willingly seal a tailed beast within her own body. As far as Kushina knew Mito had managed to maintain her humanity and control even on her weakest years. Had love kept her alive? Kushina knew that love could do many things such as move mountains or willingly turn someone into a vessel, but was that enough to keep her human? She loved her friends like they were her family, yet she had never been completely honest to them about herself in all those years. Carrying something so monstrous inside her just made her wonder if those she loved would fear her once they knew the truth about her. How many had known about her former mentor, she wondered? Her late husband had known and he had still married her, but who else had known? Had they feared her, like Kushina feared for herself? Or had they accepted her as the person she was and not the mere container of a beast? She would never know, for every time she'd asked the Hokage, he would refused to even acknowledge the question. How did he expect her to know what she was to do about the tailed beast if he refused to acknowledge there was one? Instead of lecturing her about her appearance and her behavior like he had while she attended Konoha's academy, he should have focused on coaching her through the process of learning to live with it. He made her like this, it was his responsibility of turning her into a sane capable shinobi. Only he hadn't. He hadn't ignored her either. He had just played along like there was nothing to talk about. Like all adults did whenever there was a situation they didn't have the answers to. It was frustrating, among other things.

And there was the seikatsu seal among the constant fear of losing her sanity.

She had vague memories about the night she had cast it, almost like her mind was trying to forcer her to forget something that was just too painful to face. She remembered feeling overwhelmed with despair. They had been surrounded by the enemy. More than a thousand Iwagakure shinobi blocked her path. She remembered yelling orders behind her to the ones that had followed her. She remembered a stabbing pain on her stomach that only intensified once the first group attacked them. She remembered falling to the ground when that pain was too much for her. She remembered watching Satoru kill the man that had stabbed her only to get stabbed in the back by another one. The was a big gap of memories from then on and they only came in small episodes of sensations. The intensifying smell of blood. The screams all around her. The numbing of pain that had once seized her. The increasing thirst. The taste of death on her tongue. All of that in a state of mind she couldn't quite place.

It had been a horrible massacre. She had woken up with blood covering the better part of her body and intensifying feeling that she had done more than she was willing to admit. She felt more exhausted than she had ever felt in her life; a nagging guilt at the pit of her stomach. She often wondered what had happened that night? Was she the cause of those piles of bodies? Was she the creator of such death? Once the reinforcements had arrived she had been allowed to relax, but only slightly. There was a still a question that bothered her.

"Who did this?" One of the Konoha shinobi had asked, looking around frightened.

"A monster." One of the others said, turning a dead body with her feet. "Only a monster would be so cruel."

Only a monster would be so cruel. Those words had resonated with her far more than she liked to admit. 'Only the monster I carry inside would be so cruel.' She thought. Only the monster she was slowly becoming would be capable of killing without guilt.

She had come to terms that she had lost control of the Kyuubi that night. Something had snapped inside her and that had been the cause of her killing spree. However the question remained, what had caused her to lose control so abruptly? In all the years that she had been a jinchuuriki, she had never felt something like that, not once. It was almost as if the Kyuubi had taken control over of her mind without she even noticing it was happening. Was that something she needed to start worrying about? Losing control of herself when she least expected? Did that happen to all jinchuriki or was she turning onto the exception of the exception? She knew that seals after certain time would weaken, but she had always assumed that because it was Mito's, she was safe. Maybe it was time she started figuring out how the seal even worked. That way, when she felt like the Kyuubi was about to burst she would have means to stop it. Problem was she couldn't ask anyone in her village about the seal since no one even dared to talk about tailed beasts. It was ironic, Kushina thought, everyone wanted to get their hands on a tailed beast but no one dare to even acknowledge their existence.

None the less, Kushina arrived at Kosrae a few days ago with an uneventful boat trip. Since the last thing she wanted was to let Kirigakure know that she was coming at all, she had sneaked into one of the fisher boats that had been leaving for the demon country and convinced the captain to drop her off halfway there. It had taken some juggling on her part to make him change his course in the middle of the ocean, but it had worked none the less.

The day she had arrived what had struck her the most about the island had been the heavy military camps Whirlpool had set there. As far a she knew, the natives had always lived at peace with the Kirigakure shinobi, even when they've been absorbed into the Whirlpool nation and had started paying Whirlpool taxes.

Yet ever since Whirlpool had aggressively made their presence known at the island, Kirigakure traders had started to become more scares with each passing day.

According to Go, a native shinobi of the island, Whirlpool had been building military camps for the better part of the year, fearing that an invasion of Kirigakure was imminent. In truth, the Whirlpool camps had only banned boats coming directly from Kirigakure, other boats where welcome to come and share their information and goods, but since the threat of a war was on everybody's minds, the once lively ports had slowly started to turn ghostly. This, off course, had hurt the natives far more than the council was willing to admit. Since everyone knew the economy of the island depended mostly on trade, foreign trade at that, Whirlpool had been forced to develop new businesses with neighbor islands to keep the locals from revolting. The Kosrae people hadn't asked for the military camps, they were in good terms with the Kirigakure people and the military presence only scared the tourist away, meaning not only the local trading economy was suffering but their international one too. Was this really worth it? Kushina wondered, looking around at the locals trying to sell their goods to the military. If things kept escalating but there really was no actual war, Whirlpool would be forced to subsidize the whole island and their inhabitants something that could cost millions and reduce the budget to the military. If there really was going to be a open war with Konoha, Whirlpool would need all of their economical resources, meaning they wouldn't be able to help islands like Kosrae. That would only lead to Kosrae to sympathize eve more with Kirigakure. They were almost half way there anyway. An economical struggle would only push them over the edge.

Kushina ought to write a letter to her brother about the situation on the small island. Maybe if the council saw an insiders point of view they would do something to help move the flow of the trading ports of the island. That's if they could stay on the subject long enough without fighting like children. For an organization that was mostly assembled by grown men, they tended to act like spoiled children whenever they didn't get their way. It was frustrating in many ways and funny in others.

"Kushina!" Someone called from behind her, making Kushina falter on her steps and lose balance. She struggle not to fall to the ground but it was too late. The fall was imminent, fortunately a pair of arms grabbed her around the waist before she could even begin her fall. She looked up to see who it was, but seeing as every time they met this happened, she was not surprised to find Go smiling down at her. "Hey."

"Hey," Kushina smiled back, a faint blush on her cheeks. No matter how many times he would save her from falling, Kushina could never get used to the nervous feeling this guy brought whenever he was near her. It was instantaneous and it had happened almost immediately after they had met. Maybe it was something to with his violet eyes of the way his dark blue hair would fall on his face that would make her heart beat a lot faster. Or maybe it was just the fact that Kushina had never really had such a strong infatuation in so little time of knowing the person. She was not shy around boys exactly, but she never knew what to do whenever she was around one who she actually liked. Flirting was not something she had practiced before or ever, so his obvious advances would throw her off her game. It was rather frustrating to know that you had something important to say to the person but end up stuttering instead of actually saying it. After they would hang out, she would always wonder if maybe he thought of her an idiot. She certainly acted like one whenever he was around. "Thanks, again. You keep saving my ass."

His smile broadened as he let her go. "Can't say I don't enjoy it." He winked a her, something that made her heart beat a little faster, no matter how many times he did it.

Kushina decided to cut to the chase. Normally she would try to extend the time they spent together (which usually was far more fleeting that she liked) but today was a different story, not only was she in a hurry to get to the postal office so she could start on that letter to her brother, she wanted to confirm the rumors that there would be a secret expedition to Kirigakure from Whirlpool. If she could get herself assigned to the group being sent there, that would save her a lot of trouble of actually traveling without anyone else knowing. Last thing she wanted was to be sent back mid trip. Besides, she was positive her hair was a mess, she didn't want Go to see her when she was looking so hideous.

"Did you find out what I asked you to?" Kushina asked, sounding a little more rude that she intended to. She was about to apologize but Go cut her off.

"What? No kiss hello? No, 'you are looking quite ravishing today'?" Go teased her, resuming the walk she had been forced to stop.

Kushina sighed, a little more uncomfortable that she liked to admit. "I'm in a hurry today. I have important things to do."

"Don't we all?" Go gave her a sly smile, but when he noticed her serious expression he turned serious. "I must warn you that what I'm about to say may endanger you life if anyone ever finds out what you truly know."

"I'm aware of that." I didn't matter that she was the second in line for the seat at the council in Whirlpool, infiltrating the military intelligence and seducing one of their youngest leaders to gather information was one of the highest transgressions a shinobi could do. Her family and her place in the Whirlpool government would not save her here. If anyone found out that she knew more than she was allowed to, they would surely kill her. The countries security prevailed over someones life. That had always been the case. "But I can keep a secret. Can you?" she asked, to dispel the tension that had suddenly built.

Go smiled once more. "For you? Anything."

Kushina rolled her eyes, even though her heart skipped a beat.

Go turned serious once more, but made an effort to look relaxed. Nothing would give them away faster than visual tension. "As you might know already we sent a team to Baa a few days ago to gather information about the war Kirigakure."

Kushina did know this. It had happened before she had arrived at the island but her brother kept her in the loop of what was happening on the frontier with Kirigakure and the political war with Konoha. It was one of the perks of having such a well related brother.

"Last we'd heard the rebels were moving toward the south near Magoo, the capital. If they reach Veymandoo, which is not far from there, we could call it a rebel take over and the dethrone of the current government, which would be good for us. The rebels have not intention of fighting against us and, Kotaro, the leader, has even agreed to a peace treaty with Whirlpool if they manage to kill the current Mizukage." Meaning, Whirlpool wanted the rebels to win, but was that wise? Did they even knew who they were? And their long term intentions? All of that sounded really nice and good, but was Whirlpool really prepared to face the consequences of past actions? "Problem is, the first wave of that reached Mahibadoo was obliterated without a trace. There were no remains nor any survivor to explain what had happened. Kotaro tried sending another team to gather more information about the whereabouts of the first team, but they too disappeared without a trace. No body knows what happened to them."

"Nobody…knows…what happened to them…" Kushina repeated, tasting every syllable. "Nobody knows what happened. What?"

"As you heard, nobody knows what-"

"But that is ridiculous!" Kushina yelled, stopping in her tracks. She was aware that she had attracted the attention of the people passing by and tried in deflect the attention from them. Most of the locals knew that she and Go were friends, but that didn't stop people from talking more than the should. Eventually the news would travel to Megumi, the leading commander at the island and it wouldn't take her long to figure out what they might be talking about. Ever since she had arrived, Kushina got the sense that Megumi didn't like her. She had shrugged it off at first, thinking it as girl thing, but as the weeks pass and she and Go became ever closer, Megumi's attitude became more hostile toward her. It'd be no secret that she'd try her best to get Kushina out of the island and out of Go's life forever.

"But that's ridiculous." Kushina said a softer tone, a smile on her face. If people thought they were just talking casually, rumors might not reach Megumi after all. "People don't disappear like that. Even Simmons leave a seal somewhere. Are you sure they are searching hard enough?"

Go followed her lead and wrapped an arm over her shoulder. To anyone that passed by it would just look like they were having a date. "You don't understand. The island is covered in a thick layer of mist. You can barely see three feet in front of you."

"The whole country is like that. That's why it's called Kirigakure. And besides, a little mist won't matter if we use sensor types."

"Don't you think we've tried?" Go sighed, looking defeated. It as obvious he already had discuss this over with his other commanders. "We sent sensor types but according to them, the island has it's own chakra. You can't differentiate a tree from a person."

Kushina frowned not really getting what he was saying. "What do you mean-"

"I mean that things, the island in and on itself its alive. Everything around has a feel, it's not like here where you only sense people, there you can sense everything. The trees, the ocean, even the air has a feeling. There is something really rotten about that island."

"Are you saying that the one and only thing that is preventing us from winning to war with Kirigakure is staying on a island that is apparently alive?" Kushina asked, minding to keep her voice down, but aware that that was the weirdest thing she had ever hear. "Are you sure the mist isn't playing tricks with your mind? Maybe there's a long genjutsu user that is making you see things that aren't really there."

"Haruka Hyuuga would have alerted us about it when they got there. Now even he has disappeared and Konoha is claiming the life of one of their own."

"A Hyuuga was here?" Kushina asked, finding that the weirdest thing. Then another thought claimed her mind. "Is that why we are at war with Konoha?"

Go shook his head. "That was months ago, and Konoha knew what they were getting into when they sent him here." Go ran a hand through his head in frustration. "What are you saying that not even you know why we are at war with Konoha?"

Kushina shook her head. She found it rather strange that even though Whirlpool had mobilized military forces to Yap, the island closest to the continent and Konoha had moved its military to the beaches, no one had dare strike either side. If they really were at war with one another what where they waiting for really? That was one of the reasons that made Kushina wonder on the reasons for the Hokage to declare war against Whirlpool but not order a full invasion of the islands. Could there be an ulterior motive behind the war? Was the Hokage trying to accomplish here exactly? And why hadn't he sent teams to get her back to Konoha, she might be a Whirlpool citizen but she was Konoha's tailed beast container. Surely the Hokage valued the balance between the villages that the first Hokage had established when the villages were created, over three generations ago. So, why was he letting her roam free? And more importantly, the fact that she was here wasn't exactly a village secret. She was sure Danzo had plenty of spies in both Kirigakure and Whirlpool that have informed him about her whereabouts. She was a rather easy target here, he could just blame her disappearance on the likes of Kirigakure and clean his hands with another war. Why, ever since she'd left the continent, hadn't she seen any other Root ANBU following her? And what about that strenge war with Konoha nobody knew nothing about. If Go, a military commander didn't know about the reason behind the war and neither did her brother or the council…could it be that the war was a diversion for something bigger to happen? Had this been staged by the Mizukage to divert Whirlpool from moving more military to the outer islands near the border? Had he forged the signatures of war sent to Whirlpool from Konoha and vice versa to get the two nations to simultaneously destroy each other? And that island…

"When was the last time you received any reports from Mahibadoo?" Kushina asked, a wheel spinning in her head.

"Three days ago. Ito-san has gone M.I.A. too."

"Is Megumi going to send another rendezvous team?"

"I think so."

"Can you get me on it?"

Go was about to automatically say yes when he stopped to actually analyze what Kushina had just asked. "Why would you want to go to Mahibadoo? Didn't you hear what I just said? People disappear without a trace."

"But you don't know that." Kushina said frustrated. "Maybe the reason the island has some sort of feel to it because those who've been there aren't really dead, that's why sensor types get the feeling that everything around is alive. Since you can barely make out three feet in front of you because of the mist you aren't able to see them, but they are really there."

Go looked at her weirdly, what she was saying made no sense. "Are you saying they are zombies?"

"Zombies are dead." Kushina corrected, but tried to explain what she was trying to figure out on her mind. "What I'm saying is that whomever is making those people disappear is using a Hide in the Mist jutsu to conceal barely alive corpses that are being used to confuse sensor types. That's why sensors feel like the island is alive. It's not really the island, but people."

Go still wasn't convinced. "I still don't understand why you need to go."

"The only way to know what is making these people disappear is by making out what is on the island. For that you need to dispel the mist."

"And you have a jutsu that can do that." It wasn't a question.

"As a matter of fact," Kushina smiled brightly. "I do."


	5. Like An Army Falling One by One by One

**Like an Army Falling One by One by One**

* * *

"_That if desperate times call for desperate measures, then I'm free to act s desperately as I wish." - Suzanne Collins._

* * *

"Fall back!" Yusuke, a Whirlpool shinobi captain called on the team behind him. "Fall back! Fall back! Fall back! Fall back!"

"Yusuke!" Hana called behind him, watching with horror how the mist turned red. "Kawate has been taken!"

"What?" Yusuke asked, trying very hard not to look behind him. This was not time to mourn the dead, but the desperate tone on his comrades voice made him waver. "Hold your positions! Draw in closer. We'll be stronger if we watch each others backs."

"It's no use!" Omitsu called from somewhere to his right. "I can barely seen three feet in front of me. We need to dispel this mist. We can't defend against what we don't know."

That was true, Yusuke thought bitterly, watching how little visibility they had left slowly started to disappear. If only they could get back to the shore! They would get off this island and find reinforcements. "Hold your positions! Raise your weapons! Prepare to attack what's in front of you."

Yusuke raised his sword over his head and invoked lighting chakra to his blade so it was swiveling with lighting thunder. There was something in the mist. Something that had killed more than half his platoon without even showing itself. He knew that coming here was a suicide mission, but it was his duty for the council to get as much information as they could on the target. He thought that taking only sensor types would help his cause, but there was something about the mist that made everything so confusing. It was almost as if _it _was alive. He couldn't differentiate one chakra from the other. Only possibility there was was to attack on blind. It was stupid plan, but it was all he got. Maybe he was lucky enough to actually hit whatever was attacking them.

Ready to release the lighting chakra he'd been holding, the spatter of blood on his face made him hesitate earning him the cut of his hands.

"Yusuke!" he turned to his left and watch in horror how his lover's head was detached from her body with a swift motion.

"Hana!"

A clean metal cling echoed in the silence.

* * *

It was no secret that the Hokage had decided to take action when the disappearance of Kushina fell upon his village's ear and consequently, among others. A national emergency had been called and a strict curfew then set on. No one was allowed to leave the village who didn't have direct authorization from the Hokage himself, which at the same time, limited the amount of request missions that Konoha was taking outside of their borders. Nothing like this had ever been seen before in the thirds long ruling, but wasn't new to those that remembered the first Shinobi World War. The only difference was that back then people actually understood the precautions were direct consequence of the imminent war with Kumogakure. As far anyone was concerned, Kushina returning to her home village (something she had done many times in the past) was not a reason to shut down their frontiers, even if she had done so without the Hokage's consent. She had always been unpredictable and it was a idiocy to base their village safety on the shoulders of a extremely rebel and loudmouth red headed.

None the less, the order took place and most of the shinobi that had been out of the country were called back, annoying more than a few. Now what was on every body's minds, besides the rising tension between Whirlpool and Kirigakure, was the Hokage's refusal to ask Whirlpool for Kushina. As far as anyone knew she had been the cause of the death of more than thirty ANBU Root shinobi who'd been instructed to retrieve her back the night she fled. Since no one knew the reason for this the first order of thought was another kidnap but there were no culprit this time, leaving Kushina, in every body's eyes, as the sole murderer of those teens. Had that been the reason for her lack of answers the night she had visited Satoru at the hospital. Minato had mentioned that she had been running away from someone that had apparently being trying to do her harm. Satoru didn't have to be a genius to connect the dots and wonder if maybe those ANBU Root were actually trying to capture Kushina. Which in then begged the question: why? Why did Danzo even want with Kushina? Was Danzo even part of this? Sure he was smart and cunning and did most things under the table, but there was no real reason behind him wanting to capture Kushina behind the Hokage's back. Satoru could almost be sure that Danzo had only been trying to get Kushina back to the village before an actual war exploded between Kirigakure and Whirlpool. It wouldn't be hard for Kiri to capture her and use her as ransom, but that didn't explain why Kushina had decided to murder those teens instead of recruiting to more peaceful ways.

Was that whole reason for the sudden war against Whirlpool? Had Danzo somehow convinced the Hokage to wage war against the small nation to get back on the murder of his minions? That didn't really sound like the Hokage and Satoru was sure that he wouldn't lead them into war without exhausting all possibilities of negotiation first. Besides, no one really knew what had taken precedence the night Kushina took those lives, _if_ she was guilty. Satoru still had his doubts.

"Uchiha!"

Satoru turned around and stiffened when he realized who was calling him. Tansho Tsuyoshi had been his boss for the better part of his stay, ever since he had arrived with Minato at the start of the month. Satoru understood that being a Jonin and his senior, gave him the power and reason to boss him around while he was under his jurisdiction, but that didn't explain his obsession with bossing him around. If it wasn't that his tea was cold, it was that he needed detailed reports on the state of the border (in which Satoru had nothing to say since there really was no life in a fifty mile radius) or the mere fact that he was simply bored and wanted someone to bully. None the less, Satoru did everything without complaint knowing that by staying here news about the war with Whirlpool and Kirigakure would be told without biased opinions clouding what was really happening. And he needed that, if he wanted to find Kushina and drill her on all of those unanswered questions she left the night she disappeared.

"Where the hell have you been?" Tansho asked, stopping so close to the younger shinobi that Satoru could smell his breath. "I declared an emergency meeting for the report of team fourty seven over an hour ago. We have been waiting for you to show up for the last half!"

"I've been here sir!" Satoru answered mockingly raising his hands to his forehead in an army salute. "You requested a complete surveillance of the post's perimeter this morning sir. I've only been following orders, sir."

"Don't mock me Uchiha," Tansho warned, pointing a finger toward his subordinate. It was an annoying habit the older one had developed ever since he had seen Nagano Kumi do it. It was no secret that Tansho felt more toward the Jonin in charge than simple admiration. Too bad she was too busy drooling over Minato to even take notice, but that was true for the most female shinobi's serving the area. "You should have finished that report hours ago. I had expected you to be back hours ago. What have you been doing that has taken better part of the day?"

Besides pondering questions that had no simple answer? "I was trying to determine the flow of the waves against the shore, sir."

Tansho raised an eyebrow and his face took an even more annoyed look. "To what purpose? Were you trying to determine the safest time to fall over?"

Satoru could have smiled at the joke if it hadn't come from him. "No sir. If the currents of the sea progress it means that a fierce battle has taken place at Kaffuu for Kirigakure shinobi primarily use water jutsu. Sir."

Tansho still looked confused. "And what does that have to do with the waves crashing against our shore?"

Satoru thought it was pretty obvious, but didn't point that out, for the last thing he wanted to was to anger his Capitan further. "If the Kirigakure army is fighting it means that they are using the water from the Tategami ocean, which lowers the currents that help the waves crash into ours shore every four seconds. Having that information will help determine if the infiltration plan of Mahibadoo island is achievable. We can't infiltrate an island that is crawling with Kirigakure's military."

Tansho still seemed confused. It was obvious that the mere explanation was more than the simple mind of the guy could handle, yet that confused look sobered up, making the Jonin forget why he was mad in the first place. "I will need a detailed report by dawn on my desk. Now get moving, Uchiha, Kumi-chan is waiting for our presence. Your request to take part in this mission has been approved."

"It has?" Satoru asked, good news finally lifting his spirit. For the better part of his stay he had been chained to the post by this man. But now, his formal request to take part on a spy mission to Mahibadoo had finally been approved by someone higher than Tansho. It was his better opportunity to find answers on Kushina's whereabouts.

"Kumi-cha is far too soft on you." Tansho waved his hands in dismissal, turning on his heels and heading back to the camp. "But for some reason she has requested your presence on the island among others. Obviously, as your leader, I will take part on this one too, along side Namikaze."

"Minato?" Satoru asked, his good mood faltering.

Tansho too seemed annoyed by the blond. "Kumi-chan's request. He's the only one of us that actually has insider's knowledge on the Land of Water."

Satoru ignored that, but then again, he ignored a lot of things that had to do with Minato.

"When are we leaving sir?"

"Dawn tomorrow." Tansho answered waving his hand over one of the guards who opened the door for them. "You have to pack your things and prepare to leave at any moments notice when the meeting ends. This is no normal spy mission, lives are at stake here."

Weren't there always once another village decided to infiltrated their enemies territory without permission? Satoru hadn't realized he had said that out loud, but the annoyed reply from his boss informed him as much.

"This is no normal spy mission. Mahibadoo is a special island, one that is completely hidden by thick mist that barely allows visibility. Few have come out alive from there."

"If that is true, what do we expect to find in such a island?"

Tansho lowered his gaze once their reached Kura's tent. She was on leave and Kumi as her replacement had taken over, making her the jonin in command at the shore post momentarily. It was only natural for her to take over Kura's tent too and that had been the head quarters for most meetings since Kumi had taken over. Satoru had expected Tansho to burst in through the door and start apologizing for his lateness like he had in the past whenever he had to fetch Satoru from his mission, yet the jonin stayed put.

"Kumi-chan isn't exactly sure." Tansho answered, making Satoru wonder why they were making the mission at all if they didn't know what to search for. "But there have been rumors that the three tails hides there. If Konoha can get their hands on that tailed beast then…"

"…then we could use it as ransom so Kirigakure could leave Whirlpool alone." Satoru caught on, finally realizing why he was being sent on a suicide mission. It was only a rumor amongst his clan, but his father had told him from early age that the Shanringan was a powerful tool to help control tailed beast. Madara had done it the past against Konoha, maybe he could learn to do it too. Problem was tailed beast was a subject no one knew enough of. In his life he had heard about them only twice and one of them was concerning his clan. It was obvious that they could be a great powerful asset on the villages yet no one seemed to want any asociation with them. For Konoha to get their hands on a tailed beast…

"It's only a rumor and like I said, facts are unclear. No one has come out alive of there in the past."

"If that's true," Satou asked, looking at his boss square in the eyes, "how do you know about the tailed beast?"

But Tasho didn't answer the question. He turned on his heels and pushed the door open, letting the heat that warmed the room escape out the door. Satoru followed his boss with his eyes and wonder what he was hiding before following him inside the tent.

* * *

Getting to Mahibadoo was no simple task. It wasn't only that they had to divert from the usual navigation route as not to run into any Kirigakure military and to confuse anyone that could be following the small boat, but they had been forced to make unrelated stops along the way to pick Kotaro's party along the way, since the rebels wouldn't let the leader to just waltz into an island without protection. That not only complicated their journey, but annoyed Kushina to no end. There was no use for procrastination. They were about to waltz into their deaths, there was no gain in ignoring that fact, yet no one seemed willing to talk about it. It was almost like they were scared to point the obvious, but then again everyone's mind was on the fact that maybe Kirigakure army first was a lot closer than they thought.

"You don't know Kirigakure's spies." Kotaro argued once Kushina had assured she would know if they were being followed. "They aren't called Demons Hiding in the Mist for no reason. They know how to hide in plain sight."

"I doubt anyone even knows we are trying to infiltrate Mahibadoo." Kushina argued, watching the rebel leader with wariness. She didn't know what it was about him, but he gave a bad aura. "Kirigakure knows you guys aren't going to take a risk in reaching an island where anyone that sets foot there dies."

Kotaro had smiled at that. "You obviously don't know our government. Instead of protecting us, they actively send us to die day after day. A suicide mission is far more common in Kiri than you might know."

Was that true? Kushina was about to ask something else but was interrupted when one of Kotrao's bodyguards whispered something in his ear. He turned around and started whispering with his team. What Kotaro had just said sent a chill down Kushina's spine. Sure, she knew the rumors that surrounded the bloody mist but rumors were, more often than not, far to exaggerated to actually believe. Was the Kirigakure in the rumors really the real one? With their graduation ceremony it wasn't difficult to imagine, but Kushina had always assumed that too, to be only another rumor. Maybe the world had it all wrong about Kirigakure. Maybe the real demon was only a few miles south the Tategami ocean.

Kushina forced herself to pay attention to the mission at had. It was no secret that it was going to be a difficult task. Most of the island was covered by a thick layer of mist that didn't dissipate once one reached the shore. According to scarce information that dated back to before the ninja villages were even created, the island had been used for sacrificial testing battles than more often than not involved more than one party. It was used to decide who among many was the strongest and the winner would be then selected to take part into the once called Misuto Village. Rumor had it that was were the Village Hidding in the Mist came to being and how the current Mizukage came up with the idea for such ruthless graduating test. But like anything surrounding the Land of Water, one could not take much weight into what was heard since no one knew the facts.

When the white cloud came into view, Kushina who had been leaning against the rail straightened. A dense white cape covered what Kushina had to guess was dry land. Mahibadoo island was just like the rumors said it was: a white dome. Since one could not figure out how deep into the mist the islnad really was, there was no telling if they were closing in on their target or miles away from the actual thing. No one knew how big the island was, what was it's layout or what or who resided in there. It was a big unknown they had been sent to unmask.

Clutching the rail tighter with her hands, Kushina focused her gaze upon the white dome and tried her hardest to cancel all out noise. She had only done this twice and not willingly, yet she knew that she would have some sort of advantage if only she could manage her sensing power. It didn't help that Kotaro and their captain, Hanae, were loudly arguing on what better way to approach the island. Hanae didn't want Kotaro to leave the boat for his safety was her responsibility, but Kotaro felt that since he had lead them there he had the right to do whatever he wanted, claiming that only his team would be allowed on the island until they found the source of the mist and a way to dispel it; which begged the question: why? Whole teams of both Kirigakure rebels and Whirlpool armies had infiltrated only to be eliminated only moments after landing, what made him more likely to survive whatever was killing everyone else?

Shaking any outside distractiong Kushina marveled on the feeling that what she was trying to make out slowly came into view; not physically, off course but by way of her feeling it. Although it was not a technique that she still had no full control over, Kushina could easily make out the basic layout of the island. It had a small shore that lay a few miles directly from where they were standing. The beach gave way to what felt like a scattered forest that disappeared suddenly. It was almost as if the trees had been purposely cut down by whomever was staying there. It had a hilly layout and aside from the occasional group of migrating birds flying over, there was no real life on the land. Whatever was killing was either hidden or had left. What could possibly be hiding there that was killing so many people so easily?

'_Maybe it's not alive.' _Kushina's heart skipped a beat. She had never been a believer in ghost but for some reason that island brought a bad feeling to her.

"Kushina," Go called, waving a hand over the redheaded faces. It had been the third time he had called her name, but for some reason she had remained fixated on the white dome.

"What?" Kushina asked, snapping back to reality, all previous insight disappearing instantly.

"Are you ok?" Go asked, a concerned look on his face.

"Yeah," she waved her hand, "just wondering how we are going to get there without crashing against the shore. The beach area is less than three hundred feet."

Go gave her a weird look. They didn't have a detailed map of the island and it had taken Kotaro's expert knowledge to get them there. As far as any one was concerned, the island had been a no trespassing area even before the ninja villages were established. How did Kushina know there was a beach up ahead? "Hanae has decided to send the first surveillance team on foot. We can't afford to lose the boat if we want to have an emergency mean to escape. Since she can't leave the boat she has decided to send you, me and Sasaki first to determine if it's safe to dock there."

"We are leaving Hanae here?" Kushina asked, looking over her shoulder toward Kotaro and his minions. There was no telling what Kotaro and his minions might do to their captain who would be left here unprotected. "Why can't we all go?"

"Because someone has to make it back to Kosrae if we don't make it back. Hanae wanted to take your place but since you are the only one here with wind chakra…"

He didn't finish his sentence but she caught his drift. The only reason she had been allowed to take part of this mission was because of her wind chakra. Only one in seven people were born with it, so knowing someone with wind chakra was pretty rare. Besides, she had convinced Megumi that with her tornado jutsu she would be able to dispel the mist that surrounded the island. With their visibility problems dealt with they team would finally get the answers they had been searching for and Whirlpool might be able to aid (indirectly) Kotaro's cause to take over Magoo, earning the rebels the final chance to end this senseless war.

Kushina turned her gaze back to the thick layer of white that was only a few feet before them. If her calculations were right, they would reach the shore in less than three hundred steps, meaning they had less than ten minutes before Kotaro would attempt to do anything to Hanae. It was up to her to determine what the center point of the island was and use her jutsu so her team would be able to finally claim the land. From then on it would only be a resonance mission to determine what was killing anyone that stepped foot there. It'd be easy, if she didn't mess up.

"Fine," placing her hand on the rail once more to leave a small surveillance seal on the boat. If Kotaro tried to do anything, she would know. "Let's leave."

* * *

Kushina walked carefully trying her hardest to look in front of her. It was difficult seeing as the farther they walked, the more she had to watch her step to prevent herself from falling over. It was strange. As far as she was concerned there were no lakes or rivers that would make the mist this thick, so there was only one explanation for it. It was man made. Problem was that they hadn't run into _anything _since they'd landed at the beach. Kushina had prepared herself to trip over a body or a pile of bones, but so far the only sense that they got from the island was that it was a bit hilly.

"What are we doing?" Tomi, an Whirlpool ANBU shinobi, minus the mask, asked completely annoyed by some reason. "Where are we going? We don't even know where we are! We need to do something about this mist before that ahondara* does something to Hanae. We shouldn't have left her unprotected."

"We need to find the cause of the deaths." Go answered, looking around for something that could help them with any sense of direction. It was impossible. Not only was it completely deserted, it was completely covered by mist. "That's the whole purpose of this mission."

"But what are we doing?" Tomi asked, a little more loudly than Kushina thought was prudent. "We've been walking around in circles for nearly an hour and we can barley see our hands! Mean while, Hanae is alone with that ahondara and his minions and there is no telling what he might do when we are not there to protect her. Instead of trying to find something we don't even what to look for, we should just return to the beach and find a way to take care of this mist."

"I know how to dispel the mist but we need to get to the center of the island for it to work properly. That's what we're doing." Kushina answered, never faltering on her step. When she felt the others stop, she turned around to see what had happened. Their silhouettes where there, yet she couldn't make out their features. '_Only ten feet away.'_

"There's nothing here!" Tomi insisted looking around with enphasis. "We don't know how big the island even is. We might still be trekking around near the shore. What we need to do is get back to the boat and make a report about our mission."

"But the rebels need to take this island to completely over take the Kirigakure government." Kushina argued, returning a few steps so she could look at the girl in the face. For some reason, those few feet closer didn't help, she could still barely see her silhouette. "If the Mizukage is killed war might be prevented. Do you know how many lives would be saved?"

"That is not a given." Tomi crossed her arms over her chest, or that's what it looked like, Kushina was having a hard time determining where she was at all. "How do we know that Kotaro won't be as bad as that Bloodthirsty Akumabito**. All we know he might actually attack us after gaining power."

"Kotaro has no need for more war, he had made that extremely clear."

"When has he even expressed thoughts of sighing a peace treaty with Whirlpool?" Tomi asked, her silhouette fading. If it weren't for her voice Kushina would have a hard time determining where she was. "He might just be saying that to deceive us into helping him. For all we know he might turn into someone even worse that the current Mizukage."

Kushina opened her mouth to counter attack but Go interrupted her. "Enough!" he yelled, trying his best to separate the two. Kushina completely lost sight of him after that. "There's no gain in arguing among ourselves. The mist is getting thicker and we need to find a way to get back to the shore. We can't continue the mission on this conditions. Can't you see that we can barely see our noses?"

Kushina was about to answer that but a high pitch shriek interrupted her. Before she could even comprehend what was going on, hot drops of liquid stained her face, making her stare wide eyed where Tomi used to be standing.

"What…what's going on? What happened?" Kushina asked, taking her kunai from her pouch and preparing herself for an attack.

"Something attacked her." Go answered, placing his back against hers. It might be safer to watch each others backs, even if they couldn't even see in front of them.

"We need to get back to the beach. We need to get out of here before that thing attacks us too!" Kushina panicked, heart pounding on her ears. Never in her life had she ever felt more scared of dying than right at that moment.

"But how?" Go asked, more calm than she felt. "We don't even know which way is north."

"We can't stay here!" Kushina yelled, not caring if whatever attacked heard her. She needed to get out of there before whatever killed Tomi got to her too. "We'll be killed like all those people!"

"Kushina calm down." Go advised, leaving his formation and putting a hand on her shoulder. It didn't comfort her in the least. "You won't fix anything if you let your emotions get the best of you."

Kushina was about to snap at him when hot blood spilled all over her back. Go was gone too and she was left alone on an island where she couldn't even see three feat in front of her. Letting go of the kunai she had been holding on to, Kushina turned on her heels and ran, not really knowing where she was going except for the fact that she need to get out of there as fast as she could. Falling a few times on rocks she couldn't even see, Kushina got up several times trying her best to determine what the shortest route to the beach was. She was running blind, with no real sense of direction, she could be running in circles for all she knew. It was maddening. She needed to calm down and think about her possibilities, but her pumping heart didn't help her all that much. All she knew at the moment was that she needed to escape before whatever it was got to her too.

The next time she tripped over, Kushina grabbed on the wet earth beneath her. It was amazing how someone so acrobatic could be rendered useless without visibility. In none of her academy classes had she been taught how to counter attack or move in an environment where she couldn't use one of her most precious senses. Cursing to herself, Kushina forced herself to think. There was no real possibility of escape while her sense of vision was impaired, she needed to do something about the mist and go on from that. Problem was her body had been paralyzed with fear. When had that happen? She had face many death situations before yet now it seemed like she really didn't wan to die and that sense of survival was messing with any rational thought her mind tried to stimulate. Hot tears clouded her vision and Kushina cursed under her breath.

'_Get up you fucking idiot!'_ She yelled at herself feeling desperation getting the best of her. '_Get up and put up fight! You can't die yet!' _That last thought brought her back to life and she immediately looked over at the seal on her wrist.

"_Seikatsu, means life in old kanji, meaning that the futatsu no en seikatsu seal, literally meaning, the two circles of life seal. This seal binds the life of one person to another until the dead come back to life." _

Those had been her brothers words. It binds the life of the caster with the other one that had the seal.

'_It binds my life with Sato's.' _Kushina finally realized what her brother was trying to tell her. '_Which means that if I die now, Sato will to.'_

Clutching the wet earth underneath her, Kushina clenched her teeth and jumped on her feet. She reached behind her to get the remaining kunai from her pouch but panicked once her hand found an empty bag. Looking around her desperately, she tried her best to make the most of the weird silhouettes surrounding her. If only she could find a weapon she could use, she wouldn't feel so exposed. Unlucky for her, she could barely differentiate a rock from the ground. Turning on her feet once more, she molded some chakra to her feet and jumped higher. Maybe by deceiving the attacker she wouldn't be eliminated so quickly. She landed safely and prepared herself for another jump but shouted out in pain once she felt a sharp cut on her left arm. Instinctively she clutched to it with her free hand and once more cursed under her breath. She would need to find the source of the attacks fast, before whatever it was decided to end the fight as quickly as it had done with her mates. Deciding that best way to fight what she couldn't see was to dispel the mist in front of her, Kushina jumped behind her as to prevent whatever was attacking her to get to her once more. Changing positions wouldn't exactly be much help, but at least it would give her the extra few seconds she needed to do the complicated hand seals.

Mito had passed this jutsu down along with several complicated seals in her letters to Kushina. She had been more than surprised to find out that right before her death and when they had finally chosen the next container for Kyuubi, Mito had left some instructions for her. Some were memoirs, others were advice, but most of all they were powerful jutsu that would some day help her. Curious thing was, it was all wind jutsu. Kushina had always assumed she had been selected at random, but it seemed Mito had had a lot of saying in that process.

_You will find yourself over whelmed with this new power,_ Mito had written to Kushina, _but fear not child, once you learn how to control it, even the world of the dead with kneel at your feet. _

Kushina didn't exactly knew what that meant, but she was grateful that she too had been a wind chakra specialist.

Summoning as much chakra as she could, Kushina tensed her muscles and inhaled deeply, trying her hardest to get her mind to focus on the job at hand. Her raging pulse complicated things, but the fear of death motivated her. Opening her eyes and exhaling deeply, Kushina felt the chakra leave her body and turn itself into a strong bubble of air that pushed the mist away from her in a sphere kind of way. Slowly at first, but gaining speed and momentum as soon as it quickly left her. A few seconds later, what had once been a mass of unknown finally came into view.

Kushina blinked a few times and tried her best to adapt her eyesight to the now pouring light of the moon rising over her. It surprised her that it was already night seeing as when they had arrived it had only been a few hours past noon. Had they really been running around in circles all these time? Light points of white slowly danced in front of her and Kushina turned her gaze upwards. There were scattered clouds painting the sky and snow flakes falling lazily. She didn't know how the seasons in the water country worked, but she knew for a fact it was far to early for it to start snowing. Maybe it had something to do with her attacker. Snapping back to focus, Kushina remembered why she had used the wind sphere. There was something in this island that killed it's victims before they could even draw their kunai to defend themselves. That something was after her too. But now it would be a lot harder for whatever it was to attack her. Now she could see.

Kushina turned on her feet severals times trying her hardest to find any sort of weapon laying around when her breath caught in her throat. She hadn't noticed it at first but what she once thought were hills were in fact piles and piles of dead bodies. Some were recent, judging by their incredibly well preserved facade but most of them were were a few years old. Some she could barely see the cause of death, but others it was clear that what had killed them weren't only the blood loss. There were even a few children and what she assumed had been a pregnant woman. They were everywhere.

Swallowing the scream that was about to escape her mouth, Kushina took a few steps back putting a hand over her mouth. How abhorrent! How abominable! Who could do something like this and not feel the smell of death paralyze them. She had been the cause of this, but the more she looked at their faces the more she realized she had killed innocents before. Would she become like this over time? She didn't know unto what extent containing a monster would change her, but the truth finally sunk. She would eventually become like this. One day, the Kyuubi would take over.

The ache on her arm woke her from her grim thoughts. She hadn't noticed at first but she was bleeding quite profoundly and the once deep sting had slowly started to fade. That only meant her body was slowly growing numb. She had to stop the bleeding before she would start to feel dizzy, but before that she need to stop whatever it was that had attacked her. For that she needed a weapon. Desperately looking beneath her she tried to find a weapon that was in good enough state for her to use, but her eyes kept drawing toward the dead bodies. '_Concentrate you idiot!'_ she kicked herself, '_this is between life and death. And not just yours.' _

Finally, next to the body of what she judged was a small boy she saw a sword. Stumbling toward it, Kushina fell on her knees and reached over to grab it. It was an old fashioned katana that seemed to well preserved to be here long. That only meant the real owner of this had been killed recently. A chill ran through her spine and made her shiver. There was something about using the weapon of someone who'd died that made her uneasy, but there was nothing she could do. It was either this or die at the hands of who knows what.

Summoning all the courage she could muster, Kushina clutched the katana with both hands and winced once her wound complained. It as clear that the muscle was damaged and the forced tension damaged it further. Her bone was also probably broken but she need to hold on enough to survive and finally attend to her wounds.

Looking around, Kushina searched for any sense of a life, but found none. There was nothing around her, apart from the piles of bodies. Maybe if she ran she would make it to the beach without being attacked. Maybe whatever it was that had attacked her had left with the mist. Maybe she would have a second chance at living. Doing a quick browse once again, Kushina attached the sword to her pouch belt and started running to where she could smell the shore. It was only a few feet away, she would be able to make it. Passing some dead trees along the way Kushina relished on the feeling of victory. She could make out the beach. Their boat was still lying there. She would make it!

Jumping over a big rock, Kushina landing swiftly only to find herself stumbling forward. Her breath was getting shallower, her vision blurry and her body felt like heavier than she thought was possible. She tried to stand up right once more but her legs failed her and she felt forward. She had never experienced blood loss first hand but she guessed this were their secondary effects: lose control of her senses. Cursing once more Kushina grabbed the fallen sword and forced herself to resume her run. It would be difficult for her vision was getting darker, she would have to rely on her sense of hearing. A few feet away, Kushina fell to her knees once more. The pain was getting more numb by the second, it was getting more and more difficult to breath and her strength was slowly leaving her. Death, she realized far too late, was not that far behind.

"Come on," she muttered under her breath. "Sato is counting on you. You can't die yet."

Trying to get up she fell forward once more. '_Is this it?'_ she thought, forcing her eyelids to stay open, '_Is this where I'll die?'_.

Following the snow flakes with her vision, something something in her line of vision forced her to awaken. There was something before her, something she hadn't noticed before, but something that was definitely looking at her.

The clouded sky opened, revealing a the full moon that illuminated her path. What stood before her was a ghost, a spectrum so white it was wonder it didn't melt with the falling snow flakes around. As the spirit removed the mask that had been hiding her face, Kushina noticed how white her complexion was. There was not a single drop of blood on he outside of the mask. It astonished her. How could she have killed some many people and not have the stain of their deaths in her hands?

The girl's silver hair moved alongside the wind as so did her white kimono. It was no wonder no one had seen her. She too was having a hard time looking at something that seemed more like a spirit than anything. With the mist in place it would have been impossible to even determine she was there. She almost melted onto the scenery.

'_It's you.'_ Kushina heard a voice speak on her mind. The girl's lips never moved, thought. '_You are the one I've been waiting for.'_

'_What?' _Kushina thought, trying her hardest to look for the sword she had drop while at the same time never taking her eye off the girl.

'_You are the one that I've been waiting for. You are the one that's supposed to put a stop to this.' _There it was again, a sing song voice right on her head. Was she going crazy? Had the blood loss taken its toll and now she was imagining things? Or did this girl actually have psychic powers? Before she could even wrap her head around that possibility, the white girl appeared before her in the blink of an eye. She had never seen someone move so fast, but before she knew it, she was kneeling right before her.

This close Kushina could finally detail the girl's flawless features and porcelain skin. Under any other circumstance Kushina would have called the girl gorgeous, but seeing as she was threatening her life…

'_It's you.'_ Kushina heard once more and this time she was sure that the girl was speaking directly into her mind. Her lips weren't moving but her eyes never left hers. '_You are the successor. You are the one that's going to put a stop to this.'_

"What do you mean?" Kushina used all her strength to mutter. Her vision was turning black and she was sure she would faint soon. "Who are you? How do you know who I am?"

'_You are the successor. You are the strongest of them all.' _The girl continued but she didn't move from her place she just continued staring at Kushina.

She was speaking none sense. She was just muttering random words to confuse her. She had to find her weapon fast before the girl decided that that was enough small talk. Feeling around with her hand, Kushina finally grasped the sword she had dropped earlier and used it to pull herself up from her sitting position. This wouldn't be an easy fight, but she had to at least distract her and find an opening to run to the beach. She could almost taste the salty water. From there she was sure she could hold long enough to run to the boat where Hanae was waiting for them. If only she could command her head to stop spinning!

Grasping the sword with shaky hands, Kushina tried her best to focus on the target in front of her, but the blood loss turned one simple girl into three. There was no telling who was the real one. She would just have to attack all of them at the same time. Swiveling some wind chakra on the blade, Kushina charged forward only to be dodge with surprising ease. It was clear that the girl out skilled her and she was in no shape to fight this. None the less, she made some clumsy charges to hit the girl which were dodged easily. The girl wasn't even making an effort to defend herself and just danced around Kushina's attacks with an amused look on her face. It was clears she was playing her, but what confused Kushina was the fact that she wasn't even attempting to kill her. Maybe all she really wanted was for the blood loss to finally kill her.

After what seemed like a dance, the girl sighed silently and drew her sword, driving it through Kushina stomach in a quick smooth motion. Before Kushina could even comprehend the pain that followed, she was hit back by the back of the sword on to the ground once again. The sword she had been holding fell out of her hand and Kushina looked with defeat as the girl leaned over her.

'_You are not complete.'_ The girl talked directly into Kushina's mind a disappointed look on her face. '_You haven't found a way to control the beast. You are not the one I was waiting for. You must die now.'_

A stabbing pain shot through her body from a place in between her ribs. It was clear that the girl had missed her heart on purpose, but a wound this close to a vital point would surely speed up her death. Fighting her to keep her eyes opened, Kushina finally realized that this would be the end.

Closing her eyes in defeat Kushina decided that perhaps this was the best way. Death seamed so much more simpler than she imagined it would be. She had never felt more at peace than just now.

'_Kill her.' _A menacing voice commanded from withing her, making her open her eyes. '_Kill her. Use my strength to kill her.'_

'_I don't want to have another death on my conciseness.' _Kushina argued back, not liking what she was hearing. '_I've killed enough people.'_

'_But you saved that kid from death.'_ How did the Kyuubi know that? Did it, perhaps, saw what she saw? '_If you die now he will die too. Are you prepared to kill the one you love?'_

'_I have no choice. I have no chakra left.'_

'_You have mine. Use it to kill her before death claims you.'_

'_But I don't want to kill anyone else.'_

'_Then you only have yourself to blame for the death of Satoru.'_

At the mention of his name something inside Kushina broke. All the pain, the confusion, the desperation, the sadness, everything had had clouded her sense of survival disappeared. There was no remorse, only anger.

Gone were the silver light of her eyes, for it had been replaced by red blood animal ones. Jumping on her feet, Kushina felt how strength nurtered her muscles. It was almost as if she was gaining some kind of power she didn't have. It not only gave her the will power to live but also healed her wounds. It was gratifying in ways she didn't want to admit.

Grasping the sword that was still deep in her body, Kushina broke it in half with her bare hands and threw it next to her. There was no need for a sword, she would do this with her bare hands.

Looking at the white girl that had once been smiling, Kushina noticed how her smile no longer adorned her face. Instead a look of fear replaced it.

"What's the matter?" a voice that was not her own asked. "Are you scared of death?"

Before the girl could even reply, Kushina charged forward and scratched her white kimono off her, successfully tainting it with red.

* * *

***Ahondara:** is a japanese slang that means dumbass, but stronger.

****Akumabito: **impolite way of saying demon.

Link to the picture of the white spirit: /image/bm06ghidx/


	6. It Was a Time of War

**It Was a Time of War**

* * *

_"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." - G. K. Chesterton_

* * *

The scent of blood choke them. They didn't know what it was or if it was really blood, but it's signature coppery scent choke them.

"What is going on?" Tansho asked, lifting the lantern he was holding over his head in an attempt to see before them.

It was useless, obviously. The mist surrounding this part of the Tategami Ocean was specially thick. Casting light or any other mearns to see before them were useless. The thick white atmosphere would only reflect that light back to them, making them an easy target.

"Where are we?" Nagano Kumi, their out post captain and the head of this operation asked, walking up to the bow of the small boat they were traveling in.

Since it had been too risky to actually take one of Konoha's own boats, Minato had brilliantly suggested that they rent one of the many small fisher boats used in the Land of Rice to take them toward the Land of Water. Although the Land of Rice was currently being occupied by Konoha, neither Kirigakure or Uzushiogakure had any sort of political upheaval with said land, meaning that their approach wouldn't be seen as a threat to either side. They wouldn't be attacked, unless either island nations ldiscovered who they really were.

"We must be closing in on Mahibadhoo." Minato rationalize calmly. "The mist is getting thicker as we get closer."

"That doesn't explain the scent of blood in the air." Satoru muttered, watching closely as the mist turned a very slight pink color.

"Wars are being fought constantly in the Bloody Mist." Minato said, never letting his gaze leave the mist in front of them. "I wouldn't be surprised if there has been a confrontation in Mahibadhoo by the rebels."

Satoru turned to him surprised at how calmly he spoke. "Are you saying that this mist is actually the blood of fallen soldiers?"

Kumi turned to the blond, a disturbed look on her face.

"Possibly," Minato replied, his stance more tense than it had been a few minutes ago.

No matter how many times Satoru spent time with Minato, he could never shake the feeling that he didn't act like a normal human being. Nothing could shake him to the core. It was almost as if Minato detached himself emotionally from the situation and only used his cogent to deal with the matter at hand. He was more resolute than Satoru gave him credit for. It was no wonder Kushina admire then hell out of him.

"We should turn back," Tansho called over his shoulder, a concerned look over his face.

"No," Satoru said, ignoring his rational mind. He didn't know what it was but ever since the scent of blood reached his nose, a feeling of urgency crept over his body. An urgency to reach the island. "We haven't reached our objective. We can't turn away from a harrowing situation just because a few fallen soldiers are dead."

"We don't know where we are!" Tansho yelled, turning around to look at his subordinate. "We are in enemies waters with no visibility and no way of communication. Continuing with this mission would be classified as suicidal."

"You knew what we were getting into!" Satoru tried once again, that urgent feeling intensifying. There was something up ahead that was calling him, but what? "We can't abandon a mission without having recollected the information we came for!"

"I'm not gonna risk lives over your stubbornness." Tansho muttered over clenched fists. "Do what is commanded of you."

Satoru's anger flared up. "And what is that?" he asked, pushing Minato's hand off his shoulder and pushing his captain away from him. There was something about this mist that was making them unstable. Maybe it was the increasing scent of blood, maybe it was the intensifying red color or maybe it was that urgent feeling that escalated with each passing second. "All I've done since I got here is become your secretary. I'm Uchiha Satoru, son of Aoi Uchiha the captain of the Uchiha police. I don't have to take orders from anyone who isn't my father, specially a washed up war veteran who looks down on those who he feel inferior."

Tansho opened his mouth undoubtedly strike back when the cut of wind forced them both to separate before the kunai could pierce either of them. Looking down at the bottom of the boat a kunai materialized before them, alerting them to the presence of a threat. Reaching behind him, Satoru grabbed the first shuriken he could get a hold of and threw it in the direction that the kunia had been thrown, but it didn't reach it's objective, since the splash of water was heard over the distance. Jumping once more when another cut of wind was heard, Satoru was forced off the boat as he landed a few feet away on the water. Looking around him he tried to find the source of the attacks, but the mist evade him from making out any sort of figure at all, whomever was attacking him clearly was a sensory type since it was impossible to distinguish anything with such low visibility. Jumping backwards, Satoru clumsily deflected a set of shuriken sent his way, one of them cutting a small side of his face. The enemy was getting closer, that was obvious, but how did they know where he was? He couldn't leave the pale light the fallen lantern casted on the now empty boat. Being lost in the middle of the Tategami Ocean would not be a chance or survival, he had to find a way to find the enemy and kill them before they killed him.

He motioned his body to kick behind him when he felt the presence of a body, but was unmobilized when a kunai touched the skin of throat. They found him.

"Don't move," a female voice said muttered under her breath, "or I'll kill you."

Opening his hands to let his kunai fall on the water with a splash, Satoru reached behind him, taking the female body with his hands and lifting it up over his head, effectively defeating his enemy.

"I could say the same thing to you," Satoru smiled, looking a the surprised look the girl made when she saw his red eyes.

"You are an Uchiha." The girl gasped.

"And you are from Whirlpool," Satoru observed, looking a the all familiar circle on her hitai-ate. "I know our nations are war right now but there's not reason for us to fight so far from our home. If you promise not to attack me, I promise not to kill you."

"And what makes you so sure that you could do that?" the girl asked, liberating herself from his grasp and falling a few feet away from him, her stand tense.

"Because you have no weapons to attack me with," Satoru showed her her pouch, making the girl lift her hands to do a ninjutsu. "I wouldn't dream of it. Even though I'm an Uchiha I can use lighting, giving me the advantage here. We are surrounded by water."

The girl clenched her teeth and made a lighting speed hand seal, sending a water dragon toward the Uchiha. Before it could hit Satoru, he disappeared with a splash.

"A water clone?" she asked, looking around her to find her enemy. She stopped when she felt a lightning infused kunai touch her skin.

"I don't want to kill you," his annoyingly calm voice annoyed her but forced her to stop.

"Then what do you want?" she asked, looking at him from the corner of her eye. There was no use fighting. She wasn't about to lose her life on a foreign land.

"Information."

"Regarding?"

"Mahibadhoo Island."

The girl narrowed her eyes at him. "And what makes you so certain that I know anything regarding the mystery on the island."

"Why are you here the?" Satoru asked, not nearly convinced on her feigned innocence.

"You are not the only one with tricks up your sleeve." The girl laughed, disappearing with a splash.

A water clone. Satoru cursed under his breath. He should have seen it coming. The only reason he had been able to use it was because Kushina had to taught him a few years ago. It as the key jutsu of Whirlpool and it was of no surprise that his enemy knew it. Making some hands seals he knew by heart, he focused as much chakra as he could on his feet and released it all at once, creating a wave of lightning that briefly blinded him. Looking around him, he searched for any sin that the Whirlpool kunoichi had been struck, but there was nothing there except the think mist. Had he missed? It was likely. Why would she run away when she had been the one who'd attacked him in the first place? Unless…

He looked over his head only to see the kunoichi who had attacked him earlier falling with rapid speed toward where he stood. Her arm was covered in water, but there was a certain element of sharpness about that water that frightened him a little. If he didn't dodge he was sure she would easily slice him in half. Doing a cartwheel toward his left, Satoru felt a sharp pain struck his left leg when he landed a few feet away from where she had attacked. He didn't have to look down to know that she had managed to cut him on the leg with her jutsu. He had obvious underestimated her greatly. He didn't want to fight, but her stance gave him no choice. Feeling how chakra accumulated on his eye, Satoru did the fastest hand seal he could manage accumulating chakra on his chest. This wasn't a justu that would help him much given the settings, but it would definitely distract her, giving him time to think about his next move.

"Stop!"

Choking on his jutsu, Satoru fell on his knees, quickly looking over his shoulder to see who had stopped them in the middle of an attack.

Minato stood there with his palms extended and a disturbed look on his face. "Somethings happening to the island."

"What?" the girl asked, getting over the shock quicker than Satoru might have been able to.

"The mist…" Minato looked over his shoulder at something only he could see. Looking back at them Satoru quickly noticed he was sweating with cold fear. "The mist…it's gone."

* * *

"We have to go there!" Satoru hit the side of the boat with his fist, looking extremely annoyed at who he now knew, had been the leader of Whirlpool's mission to claim Mahibadhoo. "We have to find out who dispelled the mist."

"I'm not authorizing anyone to leave this boat without further reinforcements." Hanae, the girl who he had been fighting earlier, replied calmly, giving the now clear land a fitful look. "We don't know what could be out there!"

"But your team members might be in trouble." Satoru tried to make a compelling case. Why was everyone hesitating? The thing that had prevented them from approaching had finally been taken care of by some mean they ought to looking into deeper. Now would be the one and only chance to discover what what really on that island.

"It's not that simple." Kumi, who had been wounded fighting the leader of Kirigakure's rebels Kotaro, muttered, flinching slightly when Tansho bandaged her arm carefully.

Apparently Kotaro, who had been waiting inside the boat until he could leave without raising suspicion, waited until Hanae left to fight Satoru giving him the perfect opportunity to sneak without anyone else knowing. Running into Kumi and Tansho, who had been trying to find a way to their own boat Kotarou had attacked the defenseless leaving Kumi with a dislocated shoulder and Tansho with a bruised rib. Hanae hadn't been able to pint point the reason for Tansho to betray them like that, seeing as his goal as when well as Whirlpool's were the same, but Satoru suspected Kotaro was after something in that island he didn't want anyone else to know about. What had apparently left him in check all that time had been the thickening mist and the threat of being killed by whatever was guarding that island. Clearly that wasn't the case anymore, which begged the question: what had happened? Apparently only Satoru wanted to know.

"Up until a few minutes ago we could barely see three feet in front of me. Now, all of the sudden the island is visible. There clearly is something there that controls this mist and just marching in there, without more ninja to support us, is basically marching toward our own deaths." Kumi barely thanked Tansho when he finished, and addressed Hana instead. "How long ago did your team left?"

"Four hours ago," Hanae answered skeptically, obviously still mistrustful about them. It didn't matter that their nations had been long time friends and allies, the impeding war between the two nations brought an obvious weariness about questions regarding their missions. Satoru would have acted the exact same way had it been him in such position.

"Have your received any intel on them since you docked here?" Kumi asked, making Hanae take a step back. That was the problem with Kumi sometimes, she was a retired ANBU, she expected everyone to act on direct orders without asking questions, it didn't exactly make her the most pleasant person to speak to, but it certainly made an extremely efficient captain.

"N-no." Hanae muttered, taken back by Kumi's abruptness. "The radios don't work and we couldn't get closer to the island without compromising our position, so I asked Kushina to-"

"Did you just say Kushina?" Satoru asked, perking up when he heard her name. "As in Uzumaki Kushina?"

Hanae turned to him, a surprised look on her face. "D-do you-d-do you know her? Do you know who she-"

"Where?" Satoru asked, graving Hanae by the shoulders. "Where is Kushina?"

"Uchiha," Tansho barked, jamming Satoru's arm back forcefully but not managing to move him one inch. "Calm down. We're not here to-"

"Are you saying Kushina is on that island?" Satoru yelled, his fury making his sharingan appear without him even wanting it. He poited to the island without taking his eyes off Hanae. "Tell me where Kushina is."

"She left with Go and Tomi four hours ago to explore the island." Her answers were mechanical and lacked emotion. There was something about her stare that made her seem more like she was dreaming than if she were actually alive. It was almost like she was in trance. "They were supposed to get back here hours ago but we haven't heard from them since. I presume they're dead."

Without another word, Satoru let go of the girl and jumped over board, using his feet infused chakra to run toward the island as fast as he could. There was something about this situation that left a bad taste on his mouth.

* * *

There was something seriously wrong with this island. Satoru felt it the moment he stepped on the beach. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something about this island that made his skin crawl. Looking around he tried to make out the reason for such an unpleasant feeling, but as far as the eyes could see, it was a normal shore with a small beach.

It was clear that this island wasn't a normal one. It had been a mystery for better part of a century. There was next to nothing known about this piece of land, mostly because of the mist that had covered the land. More people had died here of unexpected causes than they had during the past war. Whatever had been protecting this strategically located piece of land was obviously under control of the Kirigakure government. A secret so dark, no one knew about it. What was strange was the fact that what had been a key asset to keep the island covered suddenly disappeared. A mist so thick one couldn't see one's hand in front of ones face. There was something that had forced the island's protector to vanish. What he needed to find out was how Kushina fit in all of this.

It had been seven weeks since she had last visited him at the hospital the day she disappeared. Back then he was so high on pain killers her visit was a blur, but above all of that something she'd said had stuck on him. She had mentioned something about the seal that had been place on his right wrist were two intertwined circles were tattooed. Something about binding their lives together. At the time he hadn't been able to fully grasp what she was trying to say, he still couldn't understand what the seal did, but that urgency he had felt when they had come closer to the island gave him a slight idea that maybe those seal had created an undetectable bond between them. Could it be that seal gave him the power to feel where Kushina was? But if that was the case, why hadn't it worked for the last few weeks when he had searched for her desperately enough to transfer to the Land of Rice to get any source of information about her. Could the seal only work whenever they were near? But that couldn't be either. He was positive she was here now, why wasn't he feeling anything else this near to her. Unless…

Slapping himself, he forced his mind to get to the situation at hand. There was something here that had broken the spell that made the island unapproachable. He was pretty sure that Kushina had something to do with it and he had left the boat and his mission to find out more about the situation at hand. There was just no way that whatever was protecting this island would have left if unprotected with ease, meaning Kushina and her team most had had to fight to get their way. Problem was he was scared of finding out what had really happened. There was no guarantee that Kushina and her team had succeeded in whatever mission they had been sent here to do, basically meaning there was a slight possibility that he might find Kushina's body laying around the island. Was he prepared to deal with the death of his long time love? Ever since they had passed the Chunnin exams, back when they were thirteen, Satoru had come to terms with two things, one: he finally accepted that this nagging feeling he felt for Kushina wasn't about to go away with time (like he had originally thought) and two: now that they were going to actively contribute to the war at hand there was a real possibility of _death_.

It seemed so simple, really. Even back at the academy, when they were being formed as ninja, their instructors would time and again warn them that taking this path in life didn't guarantee a long one. There were endless possibilities of death and one had to make peace with it sooner rather than later, since most would have to either cause it or live it at some point in life. Back then, obviously, none had paid much attention to those warnings, since the idea of being a ninja and having shuriken seemed like the coolest job in their world, but as Satoru grew and he had to cause more deaths than he cared to admit, he came to the conclusion that even thought he shouldn't be, he was terrified of dying. He didn't know what it was that scared him so, he just knew that he would fight to delay it as much as he could. But that was his death. Kushina's was an entirely different matter all together.

Kushina said that the seal bound their lives together. He didn't know what that meant exactly, but it could be interpret as…well he didn't know what, but he convinced himself that if ever Kushina died, that seal that was tattooed on his wrist would let him know.

Activating his sharingan, Satoru took the first step toward inland, feeling how the weight on his shoulder multiplied and his heart accelerate. He needed to calm himself down or else he would end up doing things he wouldn't have done with his cold mind. Jumping over the rocks that separated the beach from the rest of the island, he headed toward some scattered trees that lacked vegetation. It was clear that the dark aura who'd previously lived here had prevented any living thing to make a home here. Not even birds flew by. Deciding that even though he could see in front of him it didn't mean that there weren't a possibility of being attacked, Satoru took out his kunai and held it in front of him as a mean of protection. One couldn't bee too careful.

Side stepping some scattered bones that laid in a pile by the base of the tree, Satoru quickly dropped his kunai, feeling how the breath he had been holding left his body with such haste it forced him to gasp to keep alive. He just couldn't believe his eyes. There was no way that this was true. This had to be an incredibly well placed genjutsu that even his sharingan couldn't dispel. Because there just couldn't be a living monster that had been the cause of this.

Bodies, scattered bodies covered every corner of land that made the island. Some where fresh, some where rotten, but one thing they had in common, none of them where complete. Some lack their limbs, some lack their head and some where had been so brutally mutilated, it couldn't be told who exactly it was. Satoru had never seen anything like this. He had see dead bodies before, but this…this was something beyond brutality.

"Uchiha!" he heard someone behind him call, not even having to turn around to know who it was. "Who do you think you are? Leaving us like that-"

"Oh my," someone else interrupted, "what-what happened?"

"What is this?" a third person called, walking up to his side. It was Kumi and she was covering her mouth with her hands. "Who did this?"

"Uchiha," Tansho put a hand on his shoulder as a way to call him back to reality. "What happened?"

"Tomi!" Hanae called, running toward the still bleeding but mutilated body of her subordinate.

"Who did this?" Kumi asked once again, turning to the Uchiha, rage in her eyes. "Who did you see?"

"Answer!" Tansho shook him, forcing Satoru to get back to reality.

"I don't know," he answered his voice hoarse with fear, "when I got here-when I got here…they were already lying there."

"Who could have done something so horrible?" Hanae whispered, hugging the body of a girl closer to her. "Who could be this cruel?"

"More importantly," Kumi turned toward an approaching Minato. He was the only one that didn't see obviously affected by the mutilated bodies lying around. Satoru didn't know if he should feel disgusted or admired. "We need to find Kushina. We have to bring her back."

"I haven't received such orders." Minato replied calmly, watching the bodies with a cold stare.

"Danzo-sama sent a telegram this morning, asking for a search for the missing Uzumaki." Kumi turned to Satoru, a skeptical look on her face. "I figured you knew something about her whereabouts, since you are Kushina's closest friend."

Satoru, who had been greatly affected by the sight of bodies, turn to Kumi with a tense posture. "Why is Danzo looking for Kushina? Why hasn't the Hokage sent a formal request about it? How did Danzo know that she was going to be here?"

Minato looked at Kumi with interested but stayed silent. That wasn't unlike him, but Satoru felt a slight tension on his stand when he asked those questions. Apparently he wasn't the only one that felt that request was out ranked somehow.

"Are you questioning a request form higher power?" Tansho asked, more annoyed than he had been three seconds ago. Satoru's obvious rebellion against authority had brought the bad temper.

"I'm just wondering what Danzo has to do with Kushina," Satoru raised his hands in the air, sharing a quick look with Minato. "If Konoha had wanted to bring Kushina back to the village a nation wide request for her search would have been warranted by now, yet this is the first time I'm hearing about it."

"We can't leave our shores either way," Minato interrupted before, Tansho could get any more word in. It was obvious that Kumi was blindly following orders from Danzo and Tansho following orders from Kumi. "This mission was an exception for the goal it had. Since we didn't manage to collect the information that was requested of us, we are expected to return to our post as soon as possible. Any more delay could cause confusion and eventual attack from Whirlpool. That is something I know the Hokage himself, and the rest of the council is trying to avoid."

No body could argue with that. After helping Hanae take the bodies of her subordinates on the boat that had brought them here, Satoru and his team returned to theirs, not crossing a word between them. The mission had been a failure in the strict sense of the word. Not only had they let Kotaro, the leader of the rebellion go, but they hadn't found out anything of value as to what had caused the deaths of all those people, leaving the mystery unsolved. None the less, Minato had accomplished something Satoru could have never thought possible: he had convinced Hanae to pass along a note to Kushina's brother, Naota, whispering in her ear before they parted ways: make sure this gets to Naota's hands unread. It's contents were unknown, but Satoru could form a slight idea of what it was that it was written on the note. None the less, he turned around and acted as if he hadn't seen anything, because if he were to follow the rules he would have to kill Minato.

* * *

The council room was chaos by the time he entered. People were arguing among themselves, shouting to the ceiling and there was even someone clutching their head in desperation. He had never seen such chaos emerge from people who proud themselves at being completely rational. It was unheard of for the council men to act based on their emotions. None the less there was always a first time for everything. Just because they were heartless geezers it didn't mean that they didn't have feelings too. Walking toward the center of the room, Naota did they only sensible thing to do in these kind of situations: he produced an electrical shock that resonated around him. People froze, turning to look at him.

"Everybody shut up!" Naota shouted his face as serious as he could manage. "There is no gain turning on each other!"

"That's easy for you to say," Daichi spitted out, looking at him with a new sense of distrust that Naota didn't like. Every time this man opened his mouth, the council got a little crazier. "You don't know what kind of situation your sister has put us in."

Naota didn't respond instead he turned to Tokaji, the eldest member of the council and their leader as of now until a new one was to be elected. "What are we to do now, Tokaji-sama?"

Tokaji Doi was an old man that seemed to be older than time itself. He had a long white beard that almost reached the floor and a long eyebrows that covered his eyes from sight. Most of his teeth were missing and he postured himself in such a fragile way that one often wondered if maybe his spine wasn't about to break. None the less, he was the oldest ruling member of the Yap islands and the oldest member in the council since Naota could remember. Most of the members around him respected him and every time there was a tie in the decisions the council turned to him to untie the situation. If anyone was to tell him an unbiased status it would be him.

"Kushina-chan has been captured by Yagura." Tokaji whispered, a painful hoarse in his throat carried his words. "We are officially at war with Kirigakure."

Naota blinked a few times, waiting for someone to tel him this was a joke, but when it didn't come all he could say was: "What?"

"This is the last time your sister has put us in danger!" Daichi shouted, poiting his finger at Naota. "If you and your wretched father hadn't convinced Tokaji-sama to allow her to go to Mahibadhoo this wouldn't have happened."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Naota raised his hands in front of him trying to slow down time. "What is this deal that Kushina has been captured? What happened to the expedition? Where is Hanae?"

"Her report arrived this morning," Kaza Hoshie, the elder of the Kaza clan and leader of the western most islands handled him an opened scroll. "Apparently she went on a scouting mission with two other of our own. No one knows for certain what happened, but the mist was dispelled and the bodies of Go and Hanae were found on the island along with…others. In total there were over three thousand bodies in different states of decay. No one which belonged to Kushina."

Naota asked something as he scanned the report for any piece of information that would tell him more about what had happened. "What about the cause of the deaths? The thing that was causing all those people to disappear?" he looked up from the scroll, searching around the room for some answer. "There is nothing regarding that in this report."

Every council member looked around, almost pleadingly. No one wanted to be the bearer of the bad news. No one wanted to acknowledge something so horrible out loud, for it would become real after it had been spoken. But when no one stepped up, Naota was forced to slam his fist on the table and shout: "Tell me!"

"Shiro," Tokaji raised himself from the table painfully, somehow locking eyes with the younger Uzumaki something that startled him for he was blind. "The girl name Shiro, my granddaughter, she was dismembered by the nine tails. That, I know for certain."

Naota fell back on his chair, letting the news sink in. Shiro Tokaji. One of the most gifted katana users Whirlpool had ever trained and thought to have died seven years ago was the cause of over three thousand deaths. Not to mention the kidnap of his only sister and the impending war with Kirigakure. Was this all for real? He asked himself, wondering if maybe he wasn't just dreaming and would wake up any time soon.

"By the nine tails?" Naota repeated, when the full sentence finally sinked in. "The Nine Tails has been revived?"

"There is evidence to support that," Marugo Hiraku pushed her glasses closer to her nose. She was one of the secretaries that helped the council sort through all sorts of paper work, right now she was reading a different report that the one that had been handed to him earlier. "We sent another team after Hanae got back to Kosrae. There is no hard evidence to support this theory and off course the people who examined the site were only basing their hypothesis on the legends of the nine tails, but," she paused and read something over. Those seconds felt like years for Naota, but he knew that he need to calm himself. There was no gain into exploding once more. "They found claw marks on the grown and the body had been dismembered in a way that only claws and teeth could. Unless Kushina's summoning contract involves a wolf of some kind, the body was eaten by the fox."

Hiraku extended some pictures of a bloody ground toward Naota, who fought the urge to barf. There was nothing there except blood and occasional flesh. Certainly no evidence that it had once belong to someone as beautiful as Shiro. Yet, by the way the bones and the flesh had been cut, Naota could tell that it hadn't been done by a kunai.

'_So it has finally begun,'_ Naota thought, not even looking at the gruesome picture before him. He knew it would happen sooner of later. It was only a matter of time. No matter how much chakra Kushina possesed, the seal she had place upon herself was a ticking bomb and this was the result. '_Kushina, what have you brought upon yourself?'_

"What do we do now?" Kaza asked, wanting to get a reaction from the Naota.

"We attack Kirigakure." Daichi spitted out, utterly disgusted at the lack of response from Naota. "We can't hold back just because Kushina has let herself be kidnapped."

"But doing that will only bring more demoralization to our already weak military!" Kaza shouted, looking over at Naota for help, but he was too engrossed in his thoughts to help.

"Not to mention the looming threat from Konoha!" the Marugo leader finally spoken, covering his face in his hands. "We can't fight in two fronts."

"We can't let the capture of a spoiled, untrained, unpredictable shinobi be the fall of this great nation!" Daichi yelled, bringing everyone to attention. "I've fought too hard and for too long to see our people surrender to that big braggart of Yagura. Is that what you wish to see? Your children enslaved? Your sons killed? Your mothers raped?" walking toward the center of the room, Daichi took the whole room in, spreading his arms wide to make a point. "If we focus all our forces into the invasion of Viligili I'm sure we can win this war. Most of Kiri's army is spread through the country, the Mizukage is not being guarded enough. This is our chance to end to this hundred year conflict! Once and for all!"

It was a crazy idea. Vigili was the main island where Kirigakure's shinobi village was located. It was the place where they trained and killed those who were not ruthless enough to take part in their military. It was the capital of the Water country. Taking it meant defeat for Kirigakure and victory for Whirlpool. There was only one problem. It was the southern most island of the Water Country and getting there was not small feat. Starting with the fact Kiri's military was spread out through out the norther islands preventing any military from advancing any further. The only way to get there without passing through the the norther islands was to invade the Land of Rice and advance the few miles that separated it from the Water island. It was a simple enough plan, problem was Konoha had occupied the Rice country. If Whirlpool showed any sign of invading the continent, Konoha would end their ceased fire war and engange for real in their threat to eliminate Whirlpool. Marugo was right, Whirlpool couldn't fight in two fronts.

"I agree." Everyone turned to look at Naota, a look they couldn't place clouded his eyes. "We shall invade the Rice country and take down Kirigakure once and for all."

"Naota-kun." Tokaji tried, but Naota interrupted him.

"But it won't be done by our military. We can't afford for the souther frontier to be left unprotected. Moving our army west would only alert Kiri about our intentions and they'll move their forces towards Vigili." Naota looked down once more to the pictures, making up his mind. "This must be done in the out most of secrecy. Only a selected few are to be assigned to this."

Everyone seemed to agree. It was only natural. It was the most logical choice. Daichi didn't like to be contradicted thought and said. "And who might you suggest we send on this suicide mission?"

"I'll be the sole responsible for this mission." Naota looked at Daichi in the eye. "I shall bring my sister back."


	7. Litost

**Litost**

* * *

_"He who has a why to live can bare almost any how." - Friedrick Nietzsche _

* * *

Kushina licked her fingers clean. There was something about that copper after taste that subsided the anger she felt inside. It almost calmed her in a way. Almost like she had been hungry all this time and only this allowed her to finally relax a little. Lifting the sword to her mouth, she liked the rest of the blood off it and looked down at the mutilated body. What had once been a white was now red, making her pity the fabric a little. That would never come off, she thought, swinging the sword expertly in her hands. Not that it mattered, really, for the owner was dead. Burying the sword on the ground besides her, Kushina looked around hoping to see another living thing. She had just killed her aggressor and had gotten tremendous satisfaction over it, but there was something inside her that yearned for more. Having no other victim to mutilate made her angry and she took the sword with her once more. If there were no more humans near here, she would have to go and look for them. Only killing would calm this anger. Swinging the sword over her shoulder, Kushina turned on her feet and started walking toward where she felt more chakra. The east. There was another island with roughly a few hundred people on it. It would be a small kill, but a satisfying one. Feeling how her mouth turned into a grin, Kushina set on running, not even stopping when the ground turned into water.

* * *

The smell of blood woke her up. She tasted copper in her mouth and gaged. Leaning forward, she winced when her abdomen throbbed with pain. It was obviously mad that she was using it at all. She thought she was going to vomit, but nothing came out. It was only natural. She hadn't eaten anything since… when was today? She wondered, leaning forward once more to try one more time to vomit, yet nothing came out. The taste of copper was making her sick. What had she done? Why did she taste blood? All she could remember was… that white girl. The one in Mahibadoo. The one who'd killed… Go and Tomi and… who else had been there with them? She couldn't remember much except the fact that she… what had she done? How was she still alive? Where was she? At that thought, Kushina looked around her. She was inside a room. A traditional washitsu, a traditional room of a traditional house. That's how she knew she was not in Whirlpool. There were no more house in Whirlpool with the traditional design, for young people preferred the new building apartments to traditional houses. One of the few that still stood was her own. If she were back in Whirlpool she would know, but this kind of design, with bamboo floors and paper doors… she was in a strange place, which meant she there were strangers living here, which meant she was in Kirigakure.

Was she being kidnapped and held hostage by the Kirigakure government as ransom? Would it really come to that? She doubted the Mizukage would ask for money. Ever since Kirigakure had discovered those gold mines near the border with the Azore islands, they had extracted up until the last piece of gold, giving Kirigakure the money they always lacked to fund their wars. Maybe they had used it all? It was no secret that the fight with Whirlpool over the Azore archipelago was about money. And well other things like pride and heritage. Could the Mizukage be so desperate that he needed to kidnap Kushina to justify the invasion over the west islands of Whirlpool? Kushina doubted it. If she were really inside Kirigakure she would either be dead or held in a cell. Those Kiri shinobi weren't exactly known for their mercy.

Forcing herself to sit up, Kushina suppressed another cough that tried to expel the liquids of her stomach and looked around. It was a nice room. It was big, with bamboo floors and a paper doors. A spacious room, with nothing on it. Besides the bed she was laying in, there was nothing to help her identify the owner of the house. Should she leave? She wondered, looking down at herself. Whomever had found her had take the liberty of healing her wounds. Cuts that had been afflicted on her by that white spirit were bandaged up. A sweet smell emanating from her body informed her of healing powder. She had even been provided some water and pain pills that lay besides her. Whomever it was that had found her clearly didn't want her dead. Taking the pills Kushina swallowed the water thirstily. Maybe this would help with the taste of blood.

The paper door opened and Kushina's eyes instantly traveled toward the figure entering the room. An old man stood at the door carrying a tray of food. He was really old. Older than most of the elders at her village and that said a lot. Her village wasn't known for the village of longevity for nothing. Wrinkles framed his face and eyebrows that covered his eyes made Kushina wonder who was it that this old man saw where he was going. But what really caught her attention was the steaming food on top of the tray. She hadn't realized how hungry she really was.

"You're awake." The old man said, closing the paper door behind him. Kushina had missed a precious opportunity to really know where she was. "You've been asleep for over a week. I honestly thought you'd wake up sooner but then I saw the seal on your wrist."

Kushina perked up at that. The seal on her wrist? Did he mean the Seikatsu seal? How did he even know about it? It was a forbidden jutsu after all. It says so on the book. The only reasons she knew about it, was because she had been instructed to clean the storage room at the back of her house in Konoha. It was clear, when dust leaped out of it, that no one had used or opened it in years. She doubted even her father really knew about it. But then again her brother had known… could this seal really be that secret?

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry, but you were badly hurt," he said, kneeling down to set the tray of food before her. She eyed it greedily but didn't dare take a bite. He might have saved her, but there was no telling whether he wanted her dead or alive. "You appeared at the beach one morning. Badly wounded. I had to do something."

Kushina blushed embarrassed. Wasn't she supposed to be thanking this old man about now?

"My wife would be mad if I didn't treat guest with kidness." The old man said, taking the bowling soup and taking a bite. He nodded in approval and took a bite from the rice next to it. He nodded again and offered her the chopsticks. It was clear that the food wasn't poisoned, other wise he wouldn't have taken a bite, unless…

The sound of her stomach complaining forced Kushina to accept the chopsticks and take the bowl of rice carefully. Her muscles hurt when she tensed them but she forced herself to withstand the pain. She was far too hungry to complain. Carefully tasting the piece of rice on her mouth, Kushina moaned softly. She was either far too hungry or the food taste amazing. Maybe both.

"You're a jinchuuriki, aren't you?" the old man asked, making Kushina spit out the food she had just put in her mouth.

How did he-

"That's why you were able to kill Shiro." The old man watched her carefully, but Kushina didn't answer.

Jinchuuriki. She had only heard that term used once before. Ever since Mito-sama had given up her life to seal the beast inside her, the Hokage had made it extremely clear that it was secret better kept between them. Jinchuuriki had turned into a forbidden word; once she couldn't whisper without being severely reprimanded. For this old man to know so much… well she really didn't know what to think other than he was not a regular old man.

Before Kushina could even consider addressing the word, she watched as the old man bowed down, putting his forehead on the floor. "I must thank you for that. Shiro was my creation. A creation that took life on its own. The fact that she's dead means that I can move on without regrets now."

His creation? What did he mean by that? Had that white spirit… not been human? But Kushina had killed her apparently, therefore… she didn't know what to think. It was all too confusing for her. Plus, she didn't even remember half of it.

The old man stood from his bowing position and swiftly left the room, leaving Kushina perplexed. What was she supposed to think about this? What was she supposed to say? She didn't even remember killing the girl, now that she was conscious enough to actually think about it. Had she… had she killed without knowing once more? This was the second time this happened since she'd left Konoha. The first time had been when she had killed some teenage ANBU Root shinobi who had been following her; Danzo's orders she bet, she had been overtaken by anger when one of them had threatened to kill Satoru. The only difference was she'd been conscious then. Why couldn't she remember what had happened at Mahibadoo? She remember that the white spirit, Shiro she now knew her name was, had wounded her badly. She had tried to escape but had stumbled and then… and then… what? Her mind went blank after that. Almost as if she had been knocked out. Had she… had she been possessed by the Kyuubi once more?

The sound of waves knocked her out of her trance as she looked up from her clenched hands. The old man in his rush to wherever had left the paper door open, revealing what Kushina missed most of all since she had moved to Konoha: the sea. How she wished Konoha was near the ocean. Feeling nostalgic Kushina used what little strenght she had left to walk toward the edge of the corridor and stopped at the frame of the door. This sea was like unlike anything that she'd seen ever. It wasn't blue or green or aquamarine like the one in Whirlpool. It wasn't even a blue so dark that it almost looked black, like the one bordering the Land of Demons. This sea was a the color of blood.

"Majestic, isn't it?" the old man said, making Kushina jump onto the pink sand that bordered the house. A wave crept itself over to her feet leaving a pink stain as it retreated back. A chill ran down her spine when the water touched her. "Kokai they call it. For all the blood that was spilled."

That was human blood? How many people had to die to radiate such a sick feeling?

"When?" Kushina whispered, suddenly feeling very cold. She didn't know how she had missed it. Maybe it had something to do with being this close to the water, but Kushina felt sick to her stomach the closer the waves go to her feet.

"Today. Yesterday… always." The old man said, contemplating the waters with remorse. "Every body that dies at sea ends up here. Their blood tainting the once blue waters red. Their souls never resting."

Their souls never resting. Was that what she was feeling now? The souls of those who'd fallen? The sick feeling only intensified making her desperate to wipe the blood off her feet. She didn't know how much longer she would be able to hold herself from vomiting.

Stepping into the house once more Kushina summoned some water with chakra and wiped off the blood that stained her feet. It didn't make her feel much better, but at least she wouldn't be tainted by other people's blood anymore.

The old man extended a cloth for her to clean herself. "How can you use chakra in that state?" he asked her, sitting besides her to contemplate the red sea.

Kushina looked up to the old man but didn't answer. She wasn't sure. She was never sure. Even in her most exhausted state had always been able to use her chakra to her liking, never feeling like she would run out. Could this too be a side effect of being a jinchurriki?

"How long?" the old man asked, motioning to her stomach. It took Kushina a moment to understand that what he was really referring to was her seal, the one that kept the nine tails inside her.

She put a hand on her bandaged abdomen and whispered. "Nearly ten years."

The old man turned his attention back toward the red water. "And you've survived this long." He whispered, following the waves with his eyes. "Most die after a year. Those who survive turn crazy after half a decade and those who aren't brave enough to kill themselves are killed by their village." Kushina narrowed her eyes at the old man. Was he trying to scare her? "The fact that you are safe and sane means that you have a strong will." The old man turned to her, a weird expression on his face. Almost like he was remembering something from his past. "Or something to live for. They say that he who has a why to live can bare almost any how. I'd always found that a little too idealistic, but everyone's has different priorities."

Kushina perked up when she heard that. Did she have something to live for? As she looked down at her hands she saw the seal she had placed on herself and on Satoru. Satoru had been bleeding. His leaving him slowly. She had tried to heal him with some of the medical seal she knew but a wound so close to the heart didn't heal with first aid. Then she remembered what she had read on that sealing jutsu book. A seal that would bound two lives together. A seal that would be able to save Satoru from dying by binding his life to hers. As far a she knew, that had been the only way to save him. And till this day she didn't regret it.

"Seikatsu means life in old kanji." Her brother Naota had said when he'd seen the seal. "That means, that your chakra, is being leaked into the body that you rescued. You might have more chakra than the average shinobi, but even you have a limit. When you reach that limit you will die."

'I'll die,' Kushina thought, stroking the two inter-wined circles. She had known that from the beginning. Sort off. The book had been a little too vague about the price to pay for such a convenient seal. All that really mattered to her was the fact that Satoru would live in. As far as Kushina knew that's all that really mattered to her. That was her why.

The old man followed her gaze, a sad look on his face. "My wife," he said, suddenly stroking a place similarly to hers but on his right wrist. "My wife gave her life up for me. She… she allowed me to live on by dying herself. She… was an Uzumaki, just like you."

An Uzuamki? This far south? That was news to Kushina. Who was this old man?

"So…" Kushina whispered, not really knowing how to voice her concerns. "So… the seikatsu seal… it truly does work. That person… they do live on?"

The old man looked at her, a perplexed look on his face. "By killing you." He explained, thinking that maybe Kushina hadn't really understood what he tried to say before. "The seikatsu seal leaks your chakra into the body that it's sealed to until it comes back to life, but in the process it will kill you. Sooner or later your chakra will reach zero."

Her brother had said something along those lines. She understood that. She was willing to pay the price. Why was everyone treating this like they thought she hadn't known what she getting herself into?

"Kushina," the old man said, making her look at him square in the eye. He knew her? How? "The seal you have on your stomach, the seal that keeps the nine tails inside of you, it's key source is your chakra." Every child knew that. What was this old man getting at.

"Yes," Kushina coughed, annoyed that he thought her so ignorant. "I know that."

The old man shook his head. "Every day that you leak your chakra into the dead body you brought back to life, the tailed beast seal weakens, awakening the beast. The less chakra you have, the more powerful the nine tails becomes."

A confused look on her face. What was he saying?

"That means that once the seal is weak enough, the tailed beast, the nine tails will try and escape, killing you in the process."

Kushina blinked a few times, not really understanding where was he getting at. She was bound to die either way.

"If the tailed beast escapes before the seal can be completed… the corpse, the person you're sealed to, will die along with you."

* * *

Kushina felt tears stain her face. She didn't have the strength to wipe them off. She watched as the sky melted into the water, turning the exact same red color as the water before her. What was she supposed to do now? She wondered, looking down at the seal on her wrists. Her world had crumbled down mere hours ago. Where had her hope gone to? Where had that tenacity she had felt before gone? It was almost like she had been drained of those things by a single word: death.

She had come to terms with that a long time ago. Death was something shinobi face on an every day basis, more so than any other work force on the planet. It was only natural, their job consisted mostly of death. Inflicting it, escaping it, experiencing it. It was part of the job description. That had been most of her life as a shinobi, that was why she'd made peace with death a long time ago. She had lost her mother to the Second Shinobi World War, her brother to an invasion of Kirigakure and her mentor and only vessel to one of the most powerful creatures on earth to the sealing of said creature inside her. She had experienced it, caused and mourned it many times before. That was until Satoru died.

Kushina only remembered snippet of the night she had been forced to place the Seikatsu seal on Satoru and herself. She had understood of his death when it happened, but she was been unwilling to accept it, therefore placing a forbidden seal on a life no longer to tie back to earth.

It had all started when the Hokage had assembled a team of five people to make the trip toward the small nation of Kuzagakure to prevent the Sungakure shinobi from entering further more inland and eventually into their territory. Since it had previously been planned as a diplomatic mission and not retribution mission, the Hokage had sent scrolls to give to the Suna shinobi to take back to their Kage so they could eventually prevent open war with the two village over unauthorized break of their borders.

No one at the time understood Sunagakure's behavior back then. They had been acting uncharacteristically frantic for the past few months. Sending shinobi to invade other countries' land and attacking and killing border villages that had no connection to the shinobi village further central to the countries, even killing some Iwagakure shinobi that had been sent to their border to prevent Sungakure from further invasion. A small understanding that had lead to war with the two countries.

The Hokage wanted to prevent that, so he had sent Minato, Kushina, Satoru, Hatsune and Suzume to reckon on the state of the Sunagakure army at the small nation of Kuzakgakure. Their mission was really an intent to survey the state of the border and come up with a plan to stop a possible invasion. If they were lucky enough, they would reach the Iwagakure out post that Minato had surveyed a few hours earlier and speak directly with the commander about the political state of both nations before a misunderstanding forced them into a war that wasn't their own. Unfortunately for them, Iwakgaure had taken Konoha's presence in their territory nothing more than a violation to the clause set during the peace agreement of Shinobi World War II: no nation shall invade another without being invited.

An attack was quickly ensured by Iwagakure and Kushina's team was forced back toward the frontier with the Land of Rivers, a land Konoha controlled. They were trying to reach Konoha's training village near Amegakure, when a surprise attack forced them to embrace the Iwagakure shinobi head on. They weren't prepared for it, obvious. A group of five shinobi weren't powerful enough to fend off from a group of over a hundred well trained Iwagakure chunin. Their only hope of survival was that the noise would alert Konoha's scouts near the area over a battle with Iwagakure and send reinforcements. Unfortunately for them, when they arrived it had already been too late.

Kushina remember fighting long and hard that night. Trying to disarm people without hurting them was easier said than done, especially when said people were keen on killing her without the slightest show of mercy. They were going to make it, Kushina realized after a while. The Iwagakure shinobi were falling back, something Kushina had realized was a bad sign but in the middle of desperation, realized a little too soon that it was too late.

A second group of Iwagkaure shinobi showed with orders to capture Kushina without killing her. It took the group a little while to figure that out, but once they realized their true goal was the readheaded and not killing them, the fight turned more violent. It had been Satoru who had killed the first Iwagakure shinobi. She didn't know if it was because it had threatened her or because that was the only way to save her, either way he was quickly over taken by five Iwagakure ANBU who attacked to kill him too. She remember watching Satoru's body fall to the floor when an ANBU shinobi pierced him with his sword and then…

…her hand burned, but she didn't close her palm. She watched as the small black sphere forming in her palm grew bigger, forming a slight tornado around her. She smiled, a cruel smile that wasn't really her own. They wouldn't stand a chance against her. Humans were too pathetically weak to stop her. It was only a matter of time until they'll realize that they were as good as dead. As the sphere grew larger with each passing second, Kushina lifted her palm over her head and waited for the sphere to complete itself. She would enjoy this.

"Stop her!" a shinobi yelled, throwing kunai in her direction, but was deviated by the swirling air around her.

Another shinobi was pushed away from her by an unseen force as he tried to get close enough to her to attack. "She's a jinchuuriki!"

"We have to leave!" said a third, finally realizing what the menace in the air was.

"She's going to kill us all!" some yelled, backing away from her swiftly.

"Calm down," the captain yelled, posing his sword before her. "Reground and retreat!"

A few seconds later they would have made it, but it was far too late. The sphere was complete. Kushina licked her lips, never taking away the smile. That smile was not her own, but she couldn't help but cast it; it almost had a life on its own. Throwing the sphere toward the group, Kushina watched with pleasure as it expanded, eradicated everything in it's path. Those who'd been too slow to react were evaporate in the act, a few burst into flames and the last simply watched with horror and desperation how their lives left them without so much as a fight.

'This is the end,' Kushina thought, watching with pleasure how the ground was soaked with blood.

…and then she had woken up at the hospital with the seal on her wrist. Exhausting clouded over her that morning, as she realized bandaged up that a kunai had been thrown in her direction. She barely had time to jump from the hospital bed and deflect a second kunai that'd been aimed for her leg. Looking out the window, she discovered ANBU Root shinobi pilling up at the hospital's roof top, their attention focused on her. The sight confused her. Weren't ANBU supposed to protect them from external threats? Why were they attacking her? But she didn't stick around to answer her own question. Her previous suspicions that Danzo was after her were confirmed. He had never approved of her becoming a shinobi in the first place, claiming that Konoha had better control over her while she was inside the village.

"What if she looses control?" she remember Danzo asking the Hokage one day when she had bee cited and head arrived early. It was clear she wasn't meant to hear this in the first place. "We have to keep her contained. Jailed . She mustn't walk free like a mere civilian. She's a weapon, not a human being."

The Hokage had opposed. Vehemently. How was she supposed to grow up like a normal girl if she were treated like a menace to the village? She needed to forget about the fact that she was a jinchuuriki and form herself as a normal shinobi. When she came of age, they would look into a way for her to control the nine tails power. Sadly, Kushina was never given the opportunity to grow into such age for that night Danzo had betrayed the Hokage and his advisers by trying to take control of something that wasn't his to control. Kushina had no other choice but leave the village or she risked being imprisoned and enslaved by a man that knew no mercy.

That night she visited Satoru and fled the village, barely leaving the country without incident. Well almost. She had killed more than a dozen Root ANBU on her way to Whirlpool, but that was another story. The point was she had brought Satoru back from the dead by sealing their lives together. Meaning her death would cause his essentially, something she had just learned this morning by the most unlikely source she could find. A kirigakure survivor.

"If the tailed beast escapes before the seal can be completed… the corpse, the person you're sealed to, will die along with you."

Will die along with you. Will die along with you. Will die along with you. Will die along with you.

Kushina wiped her eyes. She wasn't ready to die. At least not yet. At least not until Satoru regained his life. Even if it meant killing her in the process. She had long since come to terms with that. Satoru's life at her expense. Except… she had never taken into account the nine tailed seal.

Most of the seals she had learned from her family were chakra based. There were some exceptions, like the Seikatsu seal and the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, but as a far as she knew, the seal that Mito had placed on her used her chakra to function. The less chakra she had, the weaker it became. It was simple. Until one added a seal that leaked her chakra into a dead corpse to bring it back to life, weakening the seal that kept a tailed beast inside of her.

"What do I do now?" Kushina asked herself, trailing the two circles with her fingers.

"Learn control," Namei whispered, extending a sword toward Kushina.

She jumped, not really expecting to see him so soon. Actually, she thought she was alone, for that morning when she had woken up, the house had been empty. She assumed he had left.

It took her a moment to identify why the sword looked familiar. It had been that white spirit's, Shiro was her name. Her latest kill. Last she remember she had left if next to that girls corpse. In the island. Hundreds of miles away. Why did this old man had it? "You want your loved one to live? Then learn a way to control the beast within. Use his chakra too keep yourself alive longer and bring your loved one back from the dead."

Kushina traced the sword with her eyes toward the old man, a skeptical look on her face. "No one has ever had the power to control the tailed beast since the Rikudo Sennin." Kushina cut her finger as she pushed the tip of the sword away from her, only to feel it at her throat. Was this old man going to kill her after all?

"Learn control," Namei said once more, throwing the sword in the air and catching in expertly with two fingers as it fell down. He extended grip toward her.

Kushina stood up from her sitting position, a frown on her face. "You say it like it's so easy!" she threw her arm over her head in a circular motion, anger clouding her eyes. "Didn't you say that most jinchuuriki either kill themselves or are killed by their loved ones? What makes me so different from them?"

Namei seized her up in a swift look from head to toe. "For one you've survived for nearly ten years," he said, turning his back toward her to look at the red sea. "And you have a reason why. What more do you want?"

The question took her back. What did he mean?

"A way," Kushina said, burying the sword in the sand below her. Her anger subsiding. "A way to get myself out of this mess. A way to allow Sato to live. A way to not die before the seal is completed."

"You are the only obstacle to yourself." Namei inter-wine his fingers behind his back in a way that reminded her of the Hokage. He would do that whenever he was serious about something. "What's stopping you now?"

"Honestly?" Kushina asked, exasperated. She threw her arms over her head. "Haven't you been listening? There hasn't bee a shinobi alive that has been able to control the tailed beast. The Rikudo Sennin came close but I still doubt he even lived. That was more than three hundred years ago and history can be stretched to fit someone's perspective on something. What is there to document that this man really exists? Besides, how many more jinchuuriki have more before me? It's impossible to think that no one has tried to learn control, yet all of them have fail. What makes me so different?"

Namei looked over his shoulder. "Are you sure about that?"

Kushina blinked. What was she talking about?

"What are you saying?" Kushina asked, walking over to him and stepping herself in front of him. If he was going to tell her something he better look at her in the eye and say it. Otherwise, she didn't know if she'd be able to control herself.

Namei looked at her straight in the eye. "How do you think a kid like Yagura become the Mizukage to one of the bloodiest villages on earth?"

The question confused her. How was she supposed to know? She would never understand Kirigakure law. They seem to thrive over killing themselves.

"Yagura was a sickly kid. A frail kid, really, with no hope for a long life. Yet he became Mizukage at the mere age of thirteen. Don't you find that odd?" Namei asked, hinting at something Kushina couldn't grasp. What did that have to do with anything?

Kushina opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Namei. "When the Land of Water found and took control of the three tails he was forced into becoming a jinchuuriki, just like you. He was named Mizukage to keep him from revolting against the village." He looked at her over his shoulder, a sad look on his face. "No one took into account his insanity and what he would later do to this land."

Kushina closed her mouth in shock. The Mizukage was a jinchuuriki too? Why didn't Whirlpool know about this?

"He trained to learn control. Killed more people than the Mist cared to count. It was all for the name of power." Namei motioned to the red sea before them. "This sea, this part of the world and all the people once living here, they all died helping him achieve that goal. Their blood forever a reminder of what he is." Namei looked down as the waves tainted his feet. "Killing his opposition was only the beginning. Later anyone and everyone would become his victims."

Kushina cringed, backing away from the water. It wouldn't weird her to learn that Mizukage dumped their bodies here. Souls never to find peace. No wonder she felt so sick when she touched it. That kind of hatred died with the body.

"It can be done," Namei repeated, turning back to her. "You just have to find the way."

"But how?" Kushina asked, desperate now. If Namei knew the way…

"I don't know." Namei said, shacking his head. "I'm a mere survivor of the people who once lived on this island. Yagura was sent here to test his newly found control. More people died that day than I've seen on my life time." Namei looked down once more, that sad look crossing his face again. He turned back to Kushina a determined look on his eyes. "Find it." Namei, put his hands on her shoulder. "Find a way to control the tailed beast and avenge the souls that fell here."

* * *

**Author's Note: **What I imagined Shiro would look like, link on BIO.


	8. Blind Heroes

**Blind Heroes**

* * *

_"Wherever you go, go with all your heart." - Confucius._

* * *

Even though it was early June and summer was starting to make it's feel in the air, Satoru felt a chill run down his spine. He blinked a few times and waited a couple of seconds to wait for his father to either take back what he had just communicated or laugh at the previous statement, because surely, surely, this was a joke.

"What?" Satoru asked, searching his father's face for any sign of worry or anger or anything at all except the unswerving mirth that parted his lips. His father wasn't a serious man, he smiled to those he deemed worthy and joked around with those he loved, but never in Satoru's life had he seen this kind of smile on his father's lips.

"Your sister's getting married." His father repeated, setting the scroll before Satoru's feet so he could read the news himself. Satoru took the scroll eagerly and skimmed through it until he came to the passage that had cause his father's joy, surely this was a joke.

_…most humbly ask your only daughter's hand in marriage. This will not only unite the two opposing sides of the clan that have been clashing for years, finally integrating a once divided clan, but I can assure you on my death bed that I will devote the rest of my life to making your daughter as happy as I can possibly, a humble man, make her. If you accept my offer and she accepts my love, be sure to know that my side of the family will devote ourselves to making the Uchiha clan as exceptional as it once was._

_Haikei,_

_Uchiha Fugaku_

There it was. At the very end of the letter. Those six letters: Fugaku.

"What?" Satoru asked again, looking at his father for an explanation.

"Your sister has accepted." His father clapped his hands in delight. It was obvious that he was oblivious to Satoru's confusion. "It's going to be a spring wedding."

Satoru stood up to meet his father gaze. A troubled look crossed the younger Uchiha's face. "Fugaku? Uchiha Fugaku?" Satoru asked, hoping that voicing the name might bring some sense of clarity and understanding to his father, but he only nodded and opened his arms to embrace his son in a hug. "The late grandson of Uchiha Madara?" that forced a reaction out of his father.

His smile deemed, but only a little. "I was hoping you didn't know."

"What? That he's the great grandson of one of the most wanted criminals in all shinobi history? The man that caused the death to the first Hokage-sama? Who attacked and almost destroyed the village? Who went against the very laws of our clan?"

Uchiha Madara's story wasn't widely known by the younger generation. His generation and younger to the exact. With the death of Uzumaki Mito, the longest living shinobi in history, the third Hokage-sama had declared that the younger generations to be taught only the good about the history of the village and how it came to be known, leaving out one of the most important fights in history. For the most part, Satoru's generation and younger ignored the existence of Uchiha Madara and his attack on the village, only having a vague idea on what and how the Valley of the End came into being. Satoru had only learned about it because Mito had told Kushina about, who in turn told him about it. At first he didn't want to believed it, but pulling up some of his father's history scrolls he soon discovered that the village kept more to itself that he liked to admit.

His father frowned at his outburst. Or maybe he had spoken a little too quickly. All that was supposed to be clasified information. "How do you know all that?" his father asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Satoru choked, turning his gaze away from his father. He had spoken without thinking, again. Hanging out with Kushina was rubbing her personality traits on him.

"Let me guess," his father sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Kushina-chan."

Satoru looked at his father. "How-"

"You aren't the only one who knows about Mito-jou." His gaze turned sad. "She… she used to teach me. A long time ago."

That was news to Satoru. "You knew her?" Satoru asked, hoping his father would divulge more. Every time he asked Kushina about her, she clammed up.

"Only very briefly." His father shook his head, denying him the right to ask any further. "But I understand why Kushina-chan wouldn't talk about her."

"Really?" Satoru asked, ignoring his father's denial. "Why?"

His father didn't answer, instead turned to the opening of the door, where his younger sister appeared.

"Mikoto!" his father called, opening his arms to embrace the younger Uchiha. He almost seemed as happy as she looked. Almost.

Her sister embraced his father but only briefly, her attention was more focused on the desk he had been previously sitting on.

"Have you answered?" she asks, walking over to the desk to read what his father had been previously working on. "Did you say yes?"

His father laughed, sitting by his desk once more and taking the brush in his hands.

"I'm about to." He signed the scroll, folding it and handling it to Mikoto.

She extended her hand to take it but Satoru took it from her, a sour look on his face.

"Satoru-" his father started but his interrupted.

"Brother!" his sister turned her smile to him. "Did you hear? I'm going to bring honor to the family. Fugaku has asked for my hand in marriage."

Satoru looked at the scroll and then back at her, his heart sinking. He didn't want to bring her despondency, but she had a right to know. "Mikoto-"

"Satoru," his father interrupted before he could say anything and them both turned to him, even though only Satoru understood what his father was trying to tell him. Think before you speak, or it'll be the last words you say.

"Mikoto," Satoru turned back to his sister, a desperate look crossing his features. "Are you sure?" he asked, putting his hands on her shoulder. "You are barely sixteen."

Mikoto turned her face slightly, a confused look on her face. "The wedding's next year. I'll be seventeen then."

Satoru groaned, a desperate chill running down his spine. "But are you sure? What do you even know about the guy?"

Mikoto's smiled deemed a little, her eyebrows meeting. It was clear that she was finding his attitude weird and annoying. "You don't like him." She said. It wasn't a question. Satoru was a little taken back, he wasn't expecting to be asked that so soon and so abruptly, but she had hit the bulls eyes. Not only didn't Satoru didn't like him, he thought Fugaku thought too highly of himself, he came from the part of the family that wanted to separate themselves from the village, claiming that the senjuu had been keeping the Hokage-sama position to themselves to keep the Uchiha under their control. Satoru didn't see it that way. The Hokage-sama line of succession had happed naturally: the First was elected by popular vote including the Uchiha, the Second was the younger brother of the first, so it was only natural, and the third had been the most gifted shinobi to have been born in that ear of war and turmoil, they needed a leader, plus, he had offered to sacrifice himself for his village and his team. What some Uchiha claimed to be discrimination against them had only come through circumstance of decisions of individuals. As far as he knew, there had been an Uchiha in the company that watched the second Hokage-sama die, if he'd offered to take the fall for the team, he might have been Hokage-sama at the moment.

"It's not that," he quickly amended, glancing over to his father for help, but the old man was sitting stone face behind his desk. It was clear he didn't share his son's opinion. "I don't know him, that's all."

"Well who's fault is that?" Mikoto asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you didn't spend all your time drooling over Kushina-chan then maybe you'd have found the time to get your own family."

Satoru didn't deny the comment. He had long since accepted the fact that his feelings for his best friend went beyond platonic. It had been inevitable, she was quite charming.

"Look, I'm not saying don't marry the guy," Mikoto raised an eyebrow for that was exactly what he'd been hitting at but let him finish the thought, "just let me profile the guy. See what he's all about. Think of it as your big brother looking out for you."

Mikoto frowned. "I can take care of myself."

"I'm not saying you can't," Satoru ruffled his hair with one hand nervously. He'd forgotten that Mikoto had a temper. She reminded him of Kushina at times. "I'm just saying that you're my sister and I love you and I want the best for you. The best." Mikoto opened her mouth to say something, but he interrupted quickly. "I'm not saying that I'm going to force you to change your opinion on this marriage, I'm just saying let me see what this guy is all about. This is only your first marriage proposal, who's to say you might not change your mind in a couple of months."

"I won't." Mikoto said firmly, glaring at her brother.

"But you might." Satoru pleaded.

"I won't."

"But-"

"Mii-chan," his father called, making both siblings turn to their father. There was a affectionate smile on his lips. "Let your brother make an opinion for himself. He's not saying that he's going to prevent you from fulfilling your dreams, but he might feel better about your marriage if you marry someone he knows."

Mikoto looked between her father and older brother, a dejected look of her face. She was tire of fighting for something she had set her opinion on. "Fine," Mikoto said, waving her hand and turning on her heels. "You can take the scroll to his house. Get to know the guy better. Whatever. I've made up my mind."

Before Satoru could respond to that Mikoto left the room, leaving Satoru and his father alone.

"I know why you're worried." His father sighed, resting his chin on his hands. "But you are the natural inheritor of the clan. After I die you'll become clan leader and police captain. Fugaku will be your second in command."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Satoru said, looking down at the scroll. He decided that the best way to dissolve this marriage was to get to the source of the problem, and since his sister had already made up her mind, he needed to get the other part of this proposal to change his mind.

* * *

He had never spoken formally to Fugaku in his life. He was older than he was, far older than his sister. He was in his early twenties or something, which for the eighteen year old Satoru was far too old to even think about marrying his sister. She was barely sixteen! What had posessed a guy like him to take interest in his sister? He wondered, stopping dead in his tracks. After a while walking in circles, Satoru finally realized that he didn't know where he was going. Not only did he not know Fugaku personally, but he didn't know where he lived. Maybe it had been a bad idea to impulsively decided that he was to take a marriage scroll to someone he didn't know anything about. Well, that wasn't exactly true. He knew off him. He had been the youngest graduate of the Uchiha, his mother had been one of the few Uchiha to have been appointed ANBU under the third's command and he had applied for captain of the Uchiha police last year. That last thing his father told him about. Apparently he was still in training but as far as Satoru knew, he was on the fast track to becoming one of the leaders of the police. Which worried Satoru. He had never met Fugaku, and he was sure that his sister wouldn't fall in love with a guy that still had resentment toward the village (his sister was surprisingly good at reading people), but he just couldn't shake this feeling about the guy. Maybe it was his late relation with Uchiha Madara. Maybe it was the fact that he wanted to marry someone that was barely legal age (without parent consent, one had to be eighteen). Or maybe it was the fact that the guy always carried a scowl on his face. They had never directly spoken before, but Satoru had seen him a few times over at the police station. Even Kushina had commented on the fact.

"Cheery guy," she said once, following him with her gaze. He'd been specially grim that day, there had been another baby snatch and no trace to follow him by. The higher up were starting to doubt the effectiveness of the Uchiha police.

"That's one of his finer moods," Satoru had joked, sharing a smile with Kushina who had followed with a comment that'd made him laugh. She had that effect on him.

Kushina, he thought, looking down at the seal that adorned his wrist, where was she? Was she alive? Was she thinking of him? That last thought made him blush. Even thought he had finally come to realize that the shivers he felt on his stomach and his urgency to smile whenever she was near was the effect love had on someone, he could never come to critically wonder if she felt the same way for him. For various reasons. Time, gut feeling, the fact that he knew she'd had a crush on Namikaze Minato. A while ago, back when they were twelve and he had rescued her from those Kumo shinobi, but still! He wasn't a stranger of teenage crushes to turning into deeper feelings with old age. Maybe hers had, just like his had. Why hadn't he confessed when he had the chance? Days before her strange disappearance. The perfect opportunity had emerged just days before, when they had been laying over the cliff the had gave way to the Hokage-sama faces, by the library.

The sun was about to set and the dark sky was gaining ground on the red tint the sun had painted it before. Kushina had been smiling down at the village, her legs over the cliff, her hair dancing with the wind.

"Kushina," Satoru had whispered, his face turning red when her smiling face had turned to him with raised eyebrow. He hadn't realized he had spoken out loud. "Ah-eh-uhm-eh, yeah." He stuttered, quickly moving his face away from her gaze to prevent her from inquiring about his reddening face.

"Sato," Kushina had said, grabbing his hands on hers. He quickly looked at their intertwined fingers, his eyes softening. He looked up at her face and his heart skipped a beat. Maybe he had been imagining it, but Kushina had sported a light blush on her cheeks. They didn't say anything, only stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds, before she turned back to the village, but Satoru could swear he had seen love in there. A love one only reserved for romance.

Or he had been imagining it. Kushina was not someone to keep her feelings to herself. If she felt something she said it.

"Satoru-kun?" Satoru woke from his daydream only to find Emi looking up at him with an amused smile on her face. It was clear he had been spacing out for quite some time now.

"Emi!" Satoru smiled, quickly taking a bag of groceries she had been holding. She protested at first, but gave in with a blush after he insisted. "What are you doing here?" he asked, resuming to walk with her.

"At the market?" she asked, looking over at him confused.

Satoru blinked, finally taking in their surroundings. They were near the central plaza where all the food shops were. One only came over for a specific reason. "Right," Satoru scratched the back of his head embarrassedly. "I mean, um, how you been?"

"Buried in work," Emi sighed. "This war has brought more paperwork than we can file. Miyamoto-san has been forced to hire more people for the Hokage-sama tower."

Satoru blinked. He had forgotten they were at war with Whirlpool, what with the lack of actual attacks and all. "Right," Satoru nodded, "the war."

Emi smiled at him. "Don't worry, you're not the only one." She said, putting a hand on his shoulder. It lingered there for a few moments before she blushed and quickly pulled it away. "This has to be weirdest war Konoha has ever participated in."

"Why do you say that?" he asked, confused over her reaction. They had known each other since childhood, he thought she was comfortable around him.

Emi turned to him, hesitation on her words. "Well, for once Konoha hasn't even fire the first kunai. Nor has Whirlpool. Neither nation has tried to invade the other and we still have political relations with the island nation. During our conflict with Suna, all relations were cut. Konoha sent men to defend the border and there was an actual physical confrontation with the sand. With Whirlpool, well, some wonder on the state of the war."

Satoru perked up at that. "What do they say?" he asks, looking down at Emi with interest. He had never thought much about it, but now that she was telling him all these things, things that were clearly confidential, Satoru finally realized the depth of her job. She got classified information first hand, being one of the council's assistants and all.

Emi shook her head, more in confusion than in denial. "They whisper about the sudden disappearance of Kushina-san, say it's her fault we're at war in the first place. They blame her for the impending deaths of our people. Say she was a spy all along, sent here to recon information from us. Say-"

"That's stupid!" Satoru spat interrupting her. "Who would send a seven year old child to gather information? How was she even supposed to know exactly what to look for? Besides she saved my life more times than I can count, a spy would never do that for an enemy, no matter how-" he stopped himself when he realized those near him were staring at him. Apparently his anger had messed with his hearing and he'd been shouting. He smiled embarrassedly and picked up his pace. "What does the Hokage-sama say?" he asked, when Emi caught up to him.

She shook her head. "But I heard the strangest thing the other day." Emi whispered, stopping in her tracks. They were at the entrance of the park by the river, a short cut to her house. Satoru leaned closer. "Danzo-sama burst into the Hokage-sama's office the other day and didn't close the door properly. I was just passing by to give the Hokage-sama the latest report missions but stopped when I heard Kushina-san's name."

Satoru frowned at her, confusion waving over him. Emi continued.

"Danzo-sama was really adamant on finding Kushina-san. He kept repeating over how it was important to bring her back to the village and excel a military curefew once she was found. Said he knew where she was and that he would supply his ANBU to bring her back."

Danzo knew where Kushina was? How exactly could he have obtained such information? "What did the Hokage-sama say?"

Emi shook her head once more. It was clear that she didn't feel comfortable sharing classified information, even to him. "He said that Kushina was not their political prisoner and that they couldn't force her to come back even if they applied political pressure on Whirlpool. He forbade Danzo-sama from leaving the Land of Fire, said he and his men were needed in the village to defend it if it came to an actual war."

Actual war? What did that mean? "And Danzo was ok with that?"

Emi bit her lip, a reluctant twist of her lips informed him she was debating on whether she should be telling him this or not. Eventually she continued "Danzo said that Kushina was more dangerous than the Hokage-sama dared to admit. Said that sooner or later the Hokage-sama would learn to see things his way. I couldn't understand what the Hokage-sama said to that, but Danzo-sama stormed out not long after that."

Satoru didn't take his eyes off Emi but didn't reply after she was done. He mind turned, dots connecting in different parts of his brain but not well enough to give him the full picture. He handed Emi her bag once more and smiled goodbye at her, turning on his heels to find Minato, until the scroll he had been holding turned his attention back to his original task.

"Emi," Satoru called, forcing Emi to look over her shoulder at him. "Do you, by any chance, know where Fugaku lives?"

* * *

Fugaku didn't seem as excited as Satoru would have imagined. Maybe it was the fact that Saotru had practically ambushed him in front of the police station, once he gave up into looking for this guys house and Fugaku didn't want to appear overly eager in front of his subordinates. He'd accepted the scroll with a curt nod that would have infuriated Kushina, but Satoru watched as his serious look changed slightly as he read the answer his sister had written. Apparently, the slight turn upward of this guys lips would be the only kind of reaction Satoru would get from the guy. It wasn't like he was asking for him to throw his hands in the air and hug his soon to be "brother-in-law", kissing him along the way, but a small smile his way wouldn't have hurt anyone.

"I will thank the commander personally when I see him." Fugaku said, closing the scroll quickly, almost as if he was afraid the guys trailing behind him would read over his shoulder.

Satoru only nodded and waved when the older Uchiha resumed his walk.

"What the hell is his problem?" he heard the Kushina that lived in his head ask, as he watched the back of Fugaku's police uniform. "I know he's a Uchiha, but shouldn't he at least show a little more happiness over this fact? I mean, he's basically third in line to become clan leader. That's until you have a child of your own."

She was right, Satoru thought, turning to look at the watch near the entrance of the police station, and if she were here she would have demanded the engagement to be nullified on the grounds of "lack of reaction from the soon-to-be-groom". Problem was, Satoru wasn't Kushina. As much as he hated the fact that his sister had become engaged before legal age, he had to take into account his sister happiness before his concern for her. He might not like the guy, but maybe that was partly because Kushina had ingrained such hatred for him in the first place. He didn't know what it was about Fugaku that annoyed her so much, but he'd been hearing her complain about him since he had memory. Could it be that Kushina secretly liked Fugaku and was just playing five year old hard to get? Nah, Satoru laughed under his breath, shaking the thought instantly, as far as he was concerned, Kushina liked Minato. Had liked him since the incident with Kumogakure. Everyone knew, except off course Minato himself and Kushina, for she refused to admit it to herself. And that was fine. Great in fact. It let him know that Kushina wasn't the asexual being the always mistook her for, meaning he had a slight chance with her, as soon as the crush developed, bloomed and withered, as most crushed did. The problem was Satoru had discovered by an unlikely source that Minato liked Kushina. Like like. As in, "If we finally admit this nagging feelings for one another we might have a chance of this working." As in, "I can't believe I ever thought myself unworthy of Minato, Sato." As in, "I would live for you forever."

Well, Satoru stopped himself, not exactly forever, but he got the idea. Problem was, for him at least, the crush he knew had started to develop for his redheaded friend sometime in his teens, had prevented him from pointing this out to Kushina. She could be so dense some times! And even though that was a characteristic about her that he loved, it annoyed him to know that every subtle hint he dropped to let her know that he liked was overlooked as "weird behavior". He'd tried! So many times! But every time she pronounced Minato's name with that perkiness of hers, his courage faltered, not because he was embarrassed, but because he was afraid. It was a cliché. Yes, he knew, but it was the truth at least. He was too afraid to lose her as a friend to muster the courage to come right out and say it:

"Kushina, I like you."

Satoru blinked, clamping a hand over his mouth. Had he said that out loud?

"Satoru-san."

A voice behind him called, making Satoru look over his shoulder. His heart sank.

"Minato," he said, scratching the back of his head with one hand. A trait he'd learned from Kushina. "I didn't see you there."

"I was just returning some reports about the recent abductions." Minato said, a stiff edge to his lips. Had Minato heard what he said? "The Hokage put me in charge."

"So you haven't been deployed again." Satoru frowned, "weird, you're the best shinobi this village has. I would have thought the Hokage had assigned you to the border."

"We're not really at war here." Minato shook his head. "There are far more pressing matters on the village."

Satoru nodded. "This has to be the weirdest state of war the village has ever been in. Not one kunai has been fired."

"Or one man killed."

Satoru frowned. There was something about the way Minato said that, that made Satoru wonder what he really meant.

"I heard about your sister's engagement." Minato smiled slightly, a weird tone to his voice. "May I invite you to a toast?"

Satoru blinked, surprised that Minato cared about his family matters all that much. Maybe Kushina was rubbing off him too.

"Sure," Satoru said, a raised eyebrow. "There's a bar down the street."

Minato's smile never wavered, but there was an urgency look on his eyes. "Actually I was hoping you'd accompany me to Ichiraku's? Without Kushina around I don't go as often. I'm starting to think that I've forgotten about the flavor of ramen."

Satoru was about to say something when the penny dropped. "Oh!" he said, a little too loudly. He quickly regained his composure. "Yes Ichiraku's would be wonderful, thank you."

Turning on their feet, the two jonin walked a familiar road, not a word spoken between them.

* * *

Satoru sighed in annoyance and looked down at the note in his hand. Minato had expertly slipped it into one of his pockets earlier, something that made Satoru feel like an academy girl, except with the joy of it. He was expecting for them to have a long talk about Kushina at Ichiraku's, Satoru ready to spill what he'd just heard from Emi, but Minato stirred the conversation every time onto trivial things. It wasn't until the end of their meal and their departure that Minato slipped the note in his pocket, asking him to meet him near the cherry blossoms close to midnight. If he'd taken such a deliberate approach to talk to him alone, it must have been because of something important, otherwise he'd spilled the beans at the ramen shop.

"You're late." Satoru sighed, turning to look at Minato who landed swiftly on a near by branch.

"Had to shake off the trail." Minato said, straightening his stance once he touched the ground. Even during something so ordinary, Minato looked as graceful as ever, Satoru thought, seizing up the blond before him. What did he have that Satoru didn't? He wondered. Blue eyes? Blond hair? Satoru came from one the most acclaimed and feared clans of all times. He was a direct blood descendant of one of the founding father's. He was his father's first choice to take command of the police. And he was taller than Minato. So there.

"Are you being followed?" Satoru asked, already knowing the answer. All this business with being jealous of Minato really had him distracted.

"Yes," Minato nodded, "and so are you."

Satoru perked up at that. "By who?"

"Root." Minato answered, looking down at his watch. It was obvious they didn't have a lot of time. "Danzo's after me."

Satoru frowned. "Why?"

"I found Kushina."

Satoru blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. "What?"

"I know where she's staying." Minato whispered, motioning for Satoru to stay where he stood. "I know where she's going next and Danzo wants to find her. Badly. He's following me hoping to find an opening to arrest me and question me about Kushina's whereabouts. On behalf of the security of the village, off course."

"Off course," Satoru repeated, his mind racing. "Where…?" he didn't ask anymore, almost afraid that by voicing the whole question he'd invite Kushina to move from the spot she stood.

"Iwagakure." Minato sighed, "the Mizukage has her."

"We have to rescue her!" Satoru exploded, once the news sank in. "How can you be so calm about this-"

"We can't afford to start another war with an island nation." Minato quickly interrupted, motioning with one hand to Satoru to breath. It wouldn't do them any good to loose their temper. "We have to thread carefully."

Satoru waved his arm in front of him, closing his fist to control his temper, to no avail. "We can't just let that kid keep her. Iwagakure will use her against Whirlpool. As their closest ally, we are obliged to do something!"

"Except we're at war with Whirlpool at the moment." Minato reminded calmly. "If we do anything and it goes wrong, it wouldn't take long for a Third Shinobi World War to start."

Satoru was taken back. He had never thought of it that way. Biting his remark, he swallowed, forcing himself to calm down. "What do you propose we do then?"

"The Hokage has assigned me a S-class mission." Minato threw the scroll toward Satoru, who promptly opened it. "He asked me to go alone, but even I can't take Kiri's army by myself."

Satoru skimmed through the document, not really reading it. "When do we leave?" he asked, closing the scroll and setting it on fire. If what Minato said was true, they couldn't afford any loose trails. Even the ashes had to disappear.

"Tonight." Minato said, looking down at his watch. "We have a three minute window after midnight. The Hokage has sent a diversion for us to leave through the gates."

Satoru took a step forward, ready to jump toward the nearest branch, but stopped when Minato opened his palm in sign of surrender. "If you accept this mission, know that failure would catalog us a rogue ninja." Satoru opened his mouth to answer, but Minato interrupted him. "That means that if we're caught your position as clan leader will be question, leaving your sister's next in line to take on the task, meaning, his soon to be husband would be too."

Meaning that if he was caught, the position of clan leader would fall onto Fugaku and his side of the family. Meaning, a possible internal war with the Senjuu, since it was well known that his side of the family hate the Senjuu since they had for years, or so they claimed, kept the Uchiha from taking power. Satoru had never thought of it that way. Back when the Second was still alive, one of Emi's ancestors had been taken into account for the position as third Hokage, Uchiha Kagami. The fact that he hadn't been prepared to die yet didn't say anything about anyone there except that for the third had come to terms with ending his life over everyone else. It wasn't the Senjuu's fault that his ancestor didn't want to die yet.

If he really thought about it calmly and rationally, him going at all was the most mindless idea he had ever had since him and Kushina had been suspended a few months before graduation for pulling a prank on the Chunin instructors. Konoha had never had rogue ninja and they were proud of that. Him going on an adventure to find a reckless redhead would not only ruin his clan's reputation, it would also get him killed by his own people, if the enemy didn't get to him first. Plus, there was the chance the Kushina wasn't even in Kirigakure in the first place and that Minato had been fed false information. Meaning, that if two Konoha shinobi entered foreign territory without permission, they would not only be captured, questioned and tortured, they would also start a war with yet another shinobi nation. Would he be able to live with himself if he knew he'd been the cause and effect of the death of king of Konoha?

Looking over at Minato, Satoru discovered with great pain that the blond wasn't hesitating. He was simply informing him to let him know that he would take the action whether the Uchiha came with him or not. He was ready to face death and even exile if it meant finding the most unpredictable shinobi to ever live. No matter how many time she thought it over, no matter how awful he imagined his life would be if he were to be cataloged as rogue ninja and no matter how much he imagined he would suffer in the hands of a foreign enemy, none of them compared to him not seeing Kushina again.

"I'll do it."

"The Hokage has only granted us the diversion. He's not going to take responsibility over what happens out there. If we encounter another Konoha team, they'll be on direct orders to either arrest us or kills us, meaning we must proceed with caution and intelligence."

Satoru nodded, keenly aware of what he was about to do. "What do I have to do?"


End file.
